Largest banks globally 2022, by market capitalization

The U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase was the largest bank worldwide as of December 31, 2022, by market capitalization. JPMorgan Chase’s market capitalization reached a value of around 393 billion U.S. dollars at that time, which was significantly above the market capitalization of Bank of America, ranked second, at a value of around 265.7 billion U.S. dollars. JPMorgan Chase is also the largest bank in the United States in terms of total assets, but from a global perspective only the fifth largest.

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 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 the market capitalization saw pre-pandemic figures again.