The Top 25 Global Banks by Assets

The total assets of the top banks of the world grew by 6.8% in 2008 per The Banker magazine. However there was no asset growth among the top 10 banks in the list shown below.

The Top 25 World banks for 2009 based on Asset Growth are:

Rank	Bank	Country	Ticker
1	Royal Bank of Scotland	UK	RBS
2	Deutsche Bank	Germany	DB
3	Barclays Bank	UK	BCS
4	BNP Paribas	France	BNPQY.PK
5	HSBC Holdings	UK	HBC
6	Credit Agricole Group	France
7	JP Morgan Chase & Co	US	JPM
8	Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group	Japan	MTU
9	Citigroup	US	C
10	UBS	Switzerland	UBS
11	ING Bank	Netherlands	ING
12	Bank of America Corp	US	BAC
13	Societe Generale	France	SCGLY.PK
14	Mizuho Financial Group	Japan	MFG
15	Santander Central Hispano	Spain	STD
16	UniCredit	Italy
17	ICBC	China
18	Wells Fargo & Co	US	WFC
19	Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	Japan	SMFJY.PK
20	China Construction Bank Corp	China
21	Credit Suisse Group	Switzerland	CS
22	Agricultural Bank of China	China
23	Bank of China	China
24	HBOS	UK
25	Dexia	Belgium

Source: The Banker

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) tops the list with total assets of $3.5T. This amount has grown so high for RBS because it acquired ABN Amro Bank of The Netherlands in 2007. That deal was the largest banking merger in history. ABN Amro was acquired by a consortium consisting of RBS, Fortis and Banco Santander (STD). This deal is now not only the largest banking merger, but probably one of the worst deals ever since ABN was acquired at the peak of the credit bubble.

Out of the three Chinese banks on this list, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China are new entrants this year. Chinese banks are growing rapidly due to a strong lending environment in the domestic market as well as growth in select markets overseas. In one of its strategic moves, ICBC of China acquired a 20 percent stake in South Africa’s Standard Bank in late 2007 for expansion into Africa. Standard Bank is one of the regional heavyweights in Africa with a significant presence in many countries.

Another new entrant to the top 25 list is US-based Wells Fargo (WFC). Wells Fargo’s acquisition of Wachovia last year increased its total assets. Lloyds Bank (LYG) acquired UK’s largest mortgage lender HBOS plc last year as well.

Comments

[Jett:]

acetaminophen, which is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S.

Jun 30 08:25 PM

[Jett:]

Last week's question was "Are you more optimistic about your business now than you were 90 days ago?" Exactly one quarter, 25%, of you replied that yes, you feel more hopeful about the future of your business than you did last quarter. This is a substantial drop from last quarter when just a little over half, 51%, responded positively. These are our lowest numbers in the last six months. We'll see if optimism rebounds or pessimism reigns when we ask this question again in three months.

This week's question is "Has your company increased its marketing spending in the past 90 days?" As always, we'd love to hear what you think. Be sure to give us your input by clicking on the survey form on the left-hand side.

Are you more optimistic about your business now than you were 90 days ago?
This Week 13 Weeks Ago 26 Weeks Ago 39 Weeks Ago 52 Weeks Ago
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
7 21 46 43 32 20 16 50 24 50
25% 75% 51% 48% 61% 38% 24% 75% 32% 67%

This week's question is "Has your company increased its marketing spending in the past 90 days?" As always, we'd love to hear what you think. Be sure to give us your input by clicking on the survey form on the left-hand side.

The main (economic) event of the week is this Friday – that’s when the Department of Labor releases its June unemployment report. Residential servicers and loan modification experts know full well the corollary between the unemployment rate and mortgage delinquencies. The jobless rate hit a 25-year high of , jumping from 8.9% in April. Will the jobless rate cross the 10% threshold? As for the job market in SoCal, he said that his firm recently advertised for a bi-lingual debt collector. Within three days he received 75 applications for the job...

Lennar Corp. of Miami, the third-largest home builder in the U.S., reported a wider second-quarter loss as sales fell and the company wrote down land it no longer plans to build on.



Delinquencies Rise at Freddie Mac
June 26, 2009

Freddie Mac said loan delinquencies on its portfolio and guarantee book of business rose to 2.01% in May, an 8% uptick from the previous month, but a 229% increase from the same period last year.

Jun 30 08:27 PM

[Jett:]

This is a financial coup d etat orchestrated by Wall ST in conjunction with the U.S. treasury to consolidate power

into the hands of the people that caused the problem in the first place, such as JP Morgan Chase (originator of

credit derivatives) and Goldman Sachs

Alt A and Option Arm loans-reset-the entire recovery-based on accounting fraud

Alt A and Option Arm loans will reset soon. And don't forget the entire recovery has been based on accounting

fraud- namely credit value adjustments.

Jun 30 08:27 PM

[Jett:]

ADELPHI, Md. (AP) -- Government experts called for sweeping safety restrictions Tuesday on the most widely used painkiller, including reducing the maximum dose of Tylenol and eliminating prescription drugs such as Vicodin and Percocet.
The Food and Drug Administration assembled 37 experts to recommend ways to reduce deadly overdoses with acetaminophen, which is the leading cause of liver failure in the U.S. and sends 56,000 people to the emergency room annually. About 200 die each year.

"We're here because there are inadvertent overdoses with this drug that are fatal and this is the one opportunity we have to do something that will have a big impact," said Dr. Judith Kramer of Duke University Medical Center.

But over-the-counter cold medicines -- such as Nyquil and Theraflu -- that combine other drugs with acetaminophen can stay on the market, the panel said, rejecting a proposal to take them off store shelves.

The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, though it usually does. The agency gave no indication when it would act on the recommendations.

In a series of votes Tuesday, the panel recommended 21-16 to lower the maximum dose of over-the-counter acetaminophen from 4 grams, or eight pills of a medication such as Extra Strength Tylenol. They did not specify how much it should be lowered.

The panel also endorsed limiting the maximum single dose of the drug to 650 milligrams. That would be down from the 1,000-milligram dose, or two tablets of Extra Strength Tylenol.

A majority of panelists also said the 1,000-milligram dose should only be available by prescription.

The industry group that represents Johnson & Johnson, Wyeth and other companies defended the current dosing that appears on over-the-counter products.

"I think it's a very useful dose and one that is needed for treating chronic pain, such as people with chronic osteoarthritis," said Linda Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

The experts narrowly ruled that prescription drugs that combine acetaminophen with other painkilling ingredients should be eliminated. They cited FDA data indicating that 60 percent of acetaminophen-related deaths are related to prescription products.

But some on the panel opposed a sweeping withdraw of products that are widely used to control severe, chronic pain. Prescription acetaminophen combination drugs were prescribed 200 million times last year, according to the FDA.

"To make this shift without very clear understanding of the implications on the management of pain would be a huge mistake," said Dr. Robert Kerns of Yale University.

If the drugs stay on the market, they should carry a black box warning, the most serious safety label available, the panel decided.

"If we don't eliminate the combination products we should at least lower the levels of acetaminophen contained in those medicines," said Sandra Kewder, FDA's deputy director for new drugs, summarizing the panel's vote.

Percocet and similar treatments combine acetaminophen with more powerful pain relieving narcotics, such as oxycodone.

If the combination products are eliminated, the acetaminophen and the other ingredients could be prescribed separately. In effect, patients would take two pills instead of one, and be more aware of the acetaminophen they are consuming.

Vicodin is marketed by Abbott Laboratories, while Percocet is marketed by Endo Pharmaceuticals. Both painkillers also are available in cheaper generic versions.

"The panel recommending banning Vicodin and Percocet seems a little draconian," said Les Funtleyder, an analyst for Miller Tabak & Co.

Drug companies avoided the most damaging potential outcome with the defeat of proposal to pull NyQuil and other over-the-counter cold and cough medicines that combine acetaminophen with other drugs.

These drugs can be dangerous when taken with Tylenol or other drugs containing acetaminophen, according to the FDA, but cause only 10 percent of acetaminophen-related deaths.

"I don't think we should be advocating a solution to a problem that really is not there," said Dr. Osemwota Omoigui, of the Los Angeles pain clinic.

A recall of combination cold medicines would have cost manufacturers hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Total sales of all acetaminophen drugs reached $2.6 billion last year, with 80 percent of the market comprised of over-the-counter products, according to IMS Health, a health care analysis firm.

"The acetaminophen people dodged a bullet," said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor who studies the biomedical industry.

Even with the lower daily dosage recommendation, consumers will likely keep taking as many pills as they think they need to ease their pain, Gordon said.

Analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities said the panel votes were a "shot across the bow" of the pharmaceutical industry.

"This basically puts more government oversight into something that heretofore has been less than present," Brozak said.

AP Business writers Stephen Manning and Donna Borak contributed to this report.

Jun 30 08:28 PM