S&P Reveals: America's Banks Are Big, Chinese Are Massive

New York might be the financial capital of the world, but China is home to the planet's mightiest banks.. this was what S&P Global Market Intelligence concluded in its latest annual rankings.

S&P report explained that the top four banks in the world are from China. It added that despite the trade war and currency troubles, China's "Big Four" banks grew their total assets by 1% in 2018 to $13.8 trillion.

The list is led by Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which retained its title as the world's biggest bank. ICBC is the only lender that has amassed more than $4 trillion in assets — or roughly the size of Citigroup (C) and Wells Fargo (WFC) combined.

The next three biggest Chinese banks are each worth of $3 trillion: China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China. All four banks are state-owned.

On another hand, American banks have only gotten bigger since the financial crisis, but they've still got some growing to do to catch up to their peers in China, CNN reported.

Just two US banks, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America crack the top 10 in S&P's rankings of the world's largest banks. JPMorgan, which sports $2.6 trillion in assets cemented its role as the king of American banks Friday by posting record profit and revenue.

Wells Fargo, on the other hand, continues to struggle to move past two-and-a-half years of scandal. Citigroup (C) has surpassed Wells Fargo to become the No. 3 bank in the United States by assets.

Big banks will be in the spotlight again this week as earnings season continues.

Goldman Sachs (GS) and Morgan Stanley (MS) are under pressure to show their trading arms withstood the tranquility in global financial markets that started 2019.

While excess volatility like the storms that struck Wall Street in late 2018 can punish investment banks, a lack of turbulence can hurt as well. Stock trading often dries up when volatility vanishes, sapping Wall Street firms of lucrative trading fees.