Largest banks in the UK 2001-2023, by market capitalization

HSBC was the largest bank in the United Kingdom by market capitalization during the whole period between 2001 and 2023. As of December 31, 2023, HSBC had a market capitalization of approximately 156.17 billion U.S. dollars, which was a notable increase compared to the previous years. While the market capitalization of HSBC did not reach its pre-COVID values, it was still higher than that of any other European bank during that period.

Why was HSBC’s market cap so low in 2020?

All of Europe’s largest banks saw their market cap drop at the start of 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, the whole banking market worldwide was affected by the pandemic, with a clear drop in the worldwide overall market cap during 2020, although it recovered well during 2021. The same was also seen among all the largest banks worldwide, where the market cap dropped steadily at the start of the pandemic in early 2020, and around a year later the values started to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The banking industry in the UK

The banking industry in the UK is dominated by these five large, chartered banks. They are, however, in recent years, facing more competition from the digital “challengers”, such as Starling and Monzo Bank, to which retail customers tend to switch more and more. Despite losing customers to other banks in its home country, the size of HSBC is remarkable. It is not only the largest bank in the United Kingdom, but also one of the largest banks in the world.