China dominates the global banking sector, clearly beating US banks and increasingly outpacing European ones. Among the main Italian banks, on the other hand, the head-to-head between Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo continues, with the bank led by Jean Pierre Mustier winning on assets and the one managed by Carlo Messina leading by market capitalization. This is what emerges from the annual study on the main international banks of theMediobanca Research Area which analyzes the results of the 67 major banking groups: twenty-eight European, fifteen Japanese, 14 American and 10 Chinese.
BANKS: HERE ARE THE TOP 10 IN THE WORLD
In the global ranking, referring to 2017, of institutions by total assets, the podium is totally the prerogative of the giants of Beijing, which even lengthen their pace compared to 2016. In this context, the largest bank in the world is still Industrial and Commercial Bank of China with 3.343 billion euros of assets. In second place comes China Construction Bank with 2.750 billion of assets, followed by the Agricultural Bank of China with 2.698 billion.
In fourth place we find the first American bank: JP Morgan Chase, which loses two positions compared to the previous year, with 2.532 billion lire in total assets. With the fifth position we return to Beijing with Bank of China which recorded 2.494 billion of assets.
Sixth place for the Japanese Mitsubishi (2.273 billion assets), seventh for the British HSBC (first European ranking with 2.193 billion), eighth for the American BofA (2.164 billion). The Top Ten is completed by two French giants: BNP Paribas with assets of 2.046 billion and Credit Agricole with 1.843 billion in total assets.
ITALIAN BANKS: THE UNICREDIT-INTESA “DUEL”.
Returning to Italy, the first bank for total assets is Unicredit which is positioned in 22nd place in the general classification, conquering the national record. The institute in Piazza Gae Aulenti gained two positions compared to the previous year, with 854 billion in assets. On the other hand, Intesa Sanpaolo is in 25th place, with total assets that have grown to 830 billion (50 billion of assets were acquired by the former Veneto banks) from 714 billion in 2016. An increase that has allowed Carlo Messina's bank to make a leap of 13 positions: the previous year it was in fact in 37th place in the world.
In the traditional duel between the two major Italian banks, the positions are reversed if stock market capitalization is taken as the basic parameter. In this context Intesa enters the top ten Europe-USA, placing itself in eighth place with a market value of 46,4 billion (now down to just over 42). Unicredit, on the other hand, comes in 15th with 34,7 billion in capitalization (today 31).
Looking at the two largest Italian banks, there are some interesting trends in 2017. The first concerns one of the main themes of recent years, namely non-performing loans. Despite the Npl still represent 5,2% of customer loans, given that it exceeds the European average by more than three times (1,6%), their weight is continuously decreasing: it was equal to 8,3% in 2015 and 6,4% in 2016.
At the same time, the Mediobanca report also records the modest weight of level 3 assets (derivatives), which as regards Intesa and Unicredit are equal to 12,4% of tangible shareholders' equity compared to 32,5% in Germany.
Our institutes, however, continue to be more exposed than other European banks to government bonds, which is 14,6% of total assets compared to a European average of 9,5% the European average. Profitability is good: Roe at 9% against 5,7% of the European average.
