10 Largest Companies In The World By Assets

To say the 10 largest companies in the world by assets are controlling a lot of money would be a severe understatement.

There are over 100,000 publicly traded companies in the world. When it comes to listing the largest companies in the world by assets, it all depends upon the sorting criteria. Apple, Walmart and ExxonMobil may be the biggest companies in the world in terms of revenue, but these companies are nowhere to be found when we talk about assets.

Unsurprisingly, all of the companies on this list are from the banking and finance sector. That’s because banks hold the assets of millions of people, in addition to investing those assets for some of them. Loans also account for a major part of a bank’s assets (yes, they are considered assets, not liabilities). Banks earn higher interest rate on loans than on securities and strive to increase their assets in order to maintain a positive gap between their liabilities and assets.

After the 2008 financial crisis, banks started to hoard government bonds to bulk up their assets to support lending and growth. A recent report by the Wall Street Journal suggests that most of the central banks have stockpiled trillions of dollars’ worth of government bonds in order to solidify their safety nets. This practice is pushing the banks’ balance sheets to unprecedented levels. The total worth of assets owned by the European Central Bank more than doubled over the last few years. The Bank of Japan’s balance sheet and the size of Japan’s economy have approximately become equal. As of the end of 2014, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and US Bancorp hold over $6.8 trillion in assets, which is roughly half of the industry’s total assets of $15 trillion.

Most of the companies mentioned in this article are also among the 10 most profitable companies in the world in 2017, which makes them great investments and very popular among hedge funds. At Insider Monkey, we track over 700 of the most successful hedge funds ever in our database and identify only their best stock picks. Our flagship strategy has gained 44% since February 2016 and our stock picks released in the middle of February 2017 beat the market by over 5 percentage points in the three months that followed. Our latest stock picks were released in mid-May, which investors can gain access to by becoming a subscriber to Insider Monkey’s premium newsletters.

Having the importance of assets in mind, we’ll check out the 10 largest companies in the world by assets in this article. Check out the list beginning on the next page.

10. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)

Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is the second-largest bank in the U.S by assets. The bank’s total assets have a net worth of $2.196 trillion. Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) recently released its capital return plan after passing the second part of the FED’s stress test. The plan includes a dividend increase and a stock buyback program.

9. HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC)

London-based HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE:HSBC) is one of the 10 largest companies in the world by assets. The 152-year-old bank has assets worth $2.37 trillion. The bank has more than 7,500 offices around the world, including in Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa and the Middle East. Europe’s biggest bank by assets is currently looking for a new CEO after Stuart Gulliver told the board earlier this year that he planned to step down by 2018. The regulatory authorities in the UK have advised the bank to give “full consideration” to hiring an outsider as chief executive.

8. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is the largest bank in the U.S in terms of assets, with over $2.51 trillion of them. The bank also has its own hedge fund unit, which is the second-largest hedge fund in the U.S. The company was formed in 2000 as a result of the merger between Chase Manhattan Corporation and J.P. Morgan & Co. Last month, JPMorgan Chase easily passed the first round of Fed stress tests. The tests were designed by the Federal Reserve to make sure that banks with more than $50 billion in assets have enough capital to survive an economic crisis.

7. Japan Post Holdings

Japan Post Holdings is a state-owned conglomerate which operates in various sectors including financial services, and postal and logistics services. Japan Post’s assets have a net value of $2.522 trillion. In April, the company said it would post a loss of $360 million for its first full financial year as a public company, due to losses from Toll Holdings, which it acquired in 2015 for $4.9 billion, in a highly controversial deal.

6. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial is a Japanese financial services and banking company. Mitsubishi UFJ’s total assets are valued at approximately $2.59 trillion. The company was formed in 2005 as a result of the merger between Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group (MTFG) and Osaka-based UFJ Holdings. Last week, UFJ Financial’s chief financial officer Muneaki Tokunari said in a statement that the company plans to partner with Morgan Stanley and expand into wealth management as part of its efforts to diversify its revenue streams. The company plans to launch a new wealth management unit in Japan in April 2018.

5. Bank of China

Bank of China is one of the biggest state-owned banks in China, with total assets valued at $2.61 trillion. The bank was founded in 1912 as a replacement to the Imperial Bank of China. Bank of China recently opened up shop in Ireland. The bank, however, is skeptical of its new venture’s future amid the Brexit crisis. Bank of China has a market cap of over $141 billion.

4. Agricultural Bank of China

Next on the list of the 10 largest companies in the world by assets is Agricultural Bank of China, whose assets have a total worth of $2.82 trillion. The Beijing-headquartered bank has about 320 million retail customers, 2.7 million corporate clients, and nearly 24,000 branches. Agricultural Bank of China went public in 2010, with the world’s biggest IPO at the time. The bank has 496,698 employees. Agricultural Bank of China was a victim of one of the biggest robberies in the world, as two vault managers embezzled around $7.5 million in 2007.

3. China Construction Bank

China Construction Bank is one of the “Big Four” banks of China. China Construction Bank’s assets have a net worth of $3.01 trillion. The bank has over 13,000 branches all over the world, including in Barcelona, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, New York City, Seoul, Tokyo, and Sydney. The bank was founded in 1954 and operates various banking and financial services segments, including Corporate Banking, Personal Banking and Treasury Business. Last month, China Construction Bank was granted a license to operate in Malaysia.

2. Fannie Mae

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA), commonly known as Fannie Mae, is America’s biggest government-sponsored mortgage loan company. Fannie Mae’s assets are valued at about $3.28 trillion. The company was established in 1938 amid the Great Depression as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. The purpose of the mortgage company was to expand and secure mortgages in the form of mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and allow lenders to reinvest their assets into more lending. Fannie Mae recently raised its required Debt-to-Income ratio for mortgages to 50% from 45%. Analysts think this change will significantly help millennials who have large debt loads.

1. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) stands at the top of the list of the 10 largest companies in the world by assets. The state-owned bank, which was founded in 1984, has total assets valued at about $3.47 trillion, according to Forbes. ICBC is also the most valuable bank in the world by market capitalization as of February 2017. ICBC is among 13 banks in the world which have over 200,000 employees worldwide. In terms of revenue, ICBC is the fourth-biggest financial services company in the world. ICBC is listed on the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges.

Disclosure: None