When considering what bank to do business with, it is helpful to know which banks are the market leaders. Market leaders in the banking world can be distinguished by the amount of tier-one capital, the amount of assets, the amount of profit, and the amount of deposits. The following lists display this information, for the benefit of the consumer and/or businessperson.

The first list, below, represents the top ten banking groups in the world ranked by tier-one capital in 2004 (U.S. Dollars):

1. Citigroup 73 billion

2. JP Morgan Chase 69 billion

3. HSBC 67 billion

4. Bank of America 64 billion

5. Credit Agricole Group 63 billion

6. Royal Bank of Scotland 43 billion

7. Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group 40 billion

8. Mizuho Financial Group 39 billion

9. HBOS 36 billion

10. BNP Paribas 35 billion

The next list, below, shows the top ten banking groups in the world ranked by assets in 2003 (U.S. Dollars):

1. Mizuho Financial Group 1,265 billion

2. Citigroup 1,097 billion

3. Allianz 1,002 billion

4. UBS 907 billion

5. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group 903 billion

6. Deutsche Bank 892 billion

7. Fannie Mae 888 billion

8. ING Group 843 billion

9. BNP Paribas 835 billion

10. Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group 832 billion

The list below ranks the top ten bank holding companies in the world ranked by profit in 2003 (U.S. Dollars):

1. Citigroup 20 billion

2. Bank of America 15 billion

3. HSBC 10 billion

4. Royal Bank of Scotland 8 billion

5. Wells Fargo 7 billion

6. JP Morgan Chase 7 billion

7. UBS AG 6 billion

8. Wachovia 5 billion

9. Morgan Stanley 5 billion

10. Merrill Lynch 4 billion

The following list displays the top nine bank holding companies in the U.S. ranked by deposits as of June 30, 2004. These are U.S. deposits only.

1. Bank of America Corp. 526 billion

2. Wells Fargo & Co. 256 billion

3. Wachovia Corp. 238 billion

4. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 377 billion

5. Citigroup Inc. 193 billion

6. U.S. Bancorp 112 billion

7. SunTrust Banks, Inc. 78 billion

8. BB&T Corporation 67 billion

9. National City Corp. 64 billion

The consumer and/or businessperson would be well-advised to take such rankings into consideration when deciding which financial institution, among many, he or she should establish a banking relationship with.