As of December 31, 2023, the largest bank in the world in terms of market capitalization was the U.S.-based JPMorgan Chase. The American banking giant's market cap exceeded 490 billion U.S. dollars, which was significantly higher than Bank of America's, which ranked second with a market cap of approximately 266.45 billion U.S. dollars. JPMorgan Chase was also the largest bank in the United States in terms of total assets but ranked only fifth globally, behind four Chinese banks.
What is market capitalization?
Market capitalization, also known as stock market value, is the total value of issued shares of a publicly traded company. It is equal to the share price multiplied by the number of shares outstanding. It applies only to publicly traded companies or companies that have made their stock market debut, also known as an initial public offering, or IPO. Due to the nature of the capitalist system and the practice of buying and selling stocks in public markets, market capitalization can be used as a proxy for the wider public’s opinion of a company’s net worth, making it therefore a determining factor in calculating other theoretical values of companies and their stocks, for example, stock valuation.
How were the banks affected by the coronavirus outbreak?
The outbreak of the coronavirus left no industries unaffected and had a significant impact on the global financial markets. This can be seen in the banking industry, as the market capitalization of the largest banks worldwide dropped markedly between December 2019 and March 2020. For the largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, it was not until February 2021 that the market capitalization saw pre-pandemic figures again.
