There are four banks in the United States with assets over $1 trillion and at least four big banks in China that have assets of a comparable size. The difference is: The banks in China are surging in size. The banks in the U.S. are not. That means the Chinese banks are headed toward global domination of the world banking industry.
In 2004, the first year for which I have good numbers, the four U.S. banks – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo -- had $4.2 trillion in assets. The four big Chinese banks – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China – had $2.1 trillion.