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The Top 25 World Banks by Assets for 2009

The total assets 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:

Source: The Banker

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) tops the list with total assets of $3.5 T.  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. 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 in this list Agricultural Bank of China and  Bank of China are new entrants this year.Chinese banks are growing rapidly due to strong lending environment in the domestic market as well as growth in select markets overseas. In one of the 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 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. Llyods Bank (LYG) acquired UK’s largest mortgage lender HBOS plc last year as well.

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