FX.co ★ 2013 global banking profits boom

Global bankers are still setting records beating the precrisis levels. According to the statistics, in 2013, the total profit generated by banks around the world climbed 23% posting $920 billion from a year earlier. The outcome was the highest since 2007, when the earnings were of $786 billion. Almost the third of the world’s profit pool was made by the largest China’s banks alone like Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agriculture Bank of China, and Bank of China. Thus, China’s banking industry yielded $292.5 billion in aggregate pre-tax profit or 32% of the global earnings. The runner-up is the United States having $183 billion or 20% respectively, while the Japanese financial institutions earned $65 billion or 7% of the global pie. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the unquestioning leader of the ranking, for the last year brought $4 billion which is equal to the aggregate profits of Japanese banks.
Twenty years ago, when the Japanese banks were on top of the world, nobody would believe how dramatically the situation could change. An important point to remember is that the Chinese banking industry outpaced the American one for the first time. But such a phenomenal growth does not impress analysts, especially considering the extremely low level of non-performing loans logged in most Chinese banks.