World’s Largest Bank is Now From Asia

For the first time in history, a bank from Asia has been ranked as the world’s largest bank by market capitalization.

The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, ICBC first disposed off Citibank, which for more than a decade, has ruled the banking world, in mid of 2007 to second place.

6 months later, in January 2008, while ICBC retained its place on top of the table, Citibank continued its free fall, resulting the bank to slump to 7th place. Apart from losing its status as America’s largest banking group to Bank of America and JP Morgan, it also trailed UK’s HSBC and 2 other Chinese banks – China Construction Bank and Bank of China.

China’s boom in stock market and strong performance have contributed to the healthy growth of Asian banks, while Citibank’s major downfall has been attributed by the subprime meltdown and non-performing loans.

Many other groups on the other hand, predicted that the situation will be reversed back to normal with other major banks in the US, particularly Citibank, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase expected to bounce back the worsening economic situation.

Graduates in the United States now are less keen to consider jobs in banking after a series of major job slashing in the industry saw more than 70,000 jobs were cut in both United States and in Europe.

Other posts you may want to read:

1. How Much the World’s Largest Banks Pay Their CEOs?
2. US Graduates Not Keen on Bank Jobs
3. JPMorgan Tops as World’s Strongest Bank
4. Citigroup Ready to Lay Off More Staff
5. Banks in Europe Short of Talents
6. Bank of America Buys Merrill Lynch
7. HSBC Named the World’s Largest Company
8. Citibank Job Cut Arrives in Malaysia

Author's bio: Zul is the founder and principal contributor for the SKOR Career blog. He is the author of two books, The Malaysian Job Seeker's Dilemma and Buat Duit Tanpa Kerja Makan Gaji (How to Make Money Without a Job), available in major book stores nationwide. You can reach him at zulkiflimusa[at]gmail.com.