China Home to More Mega-Banks than US and Japan Combined

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China has emerged as the country with the world’s largest number of mega-banks whose assets have breached the half trillion dollar threshold, following a decade of breakneck credit growth in the wake of the Great Financial Crisis.

Data compiled by Bloomberg indicates that China is currently host to 13 banks with assets of over USD$500 billion,  which is more than the number mega-banks in both Japan and the US combined.

Japan and the US are host to six mega-banks respectively, while the UK has five.

France, Canada and Australia lay claim to four mega-banks, while Switzerland has three, and Germany and Italy two a piece.

China’s banking system has undergone a more than four-fold expansion over the past decade, as Beijing stepped up credit growth in order to keep the economy afloat.

The exorbitant size of China’s financial institutions has reportedly prompted Beijing to consider expanding the list of players that are categorised as “too big to fail” because of systemic risk concerns.

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