World's top 25 banks

Bank stability is a concern for corporations and investors across the world.

The sovereign debt crisis is still raging in Europe and renewed fears of contagion from southern European countries are affecting banking and market outlooks across the globe.

The bankerdatabase.com recently came up with a list of top 25 banks of the world.

The ranking is based on profits accrued by each bank.

Source: www.thebankerdatabase.com

Click NEXT to know about world's top 25 banks. . .

1. Industrial Commercial Bank of China
Pre-tax profits: $32,528 million
Tier I capital: $113,393 million

Founded on January 1, 1984, ICBC is the largest Bank of China's 'Big Four' state-owned commercial banks.

Headquartered in Beijing, the bank's key person is Jiang Jianqing (chairman & executive director).

The bank's market capital stood at $235.772 billion in 2011, net income at $25.059.3 billion and total assets at $2042.093 billion.

The bank has about 389,827 employees.

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2. China Construction Bank Corporation
Pre-tax profits: $26,448 million
Tier I capital: $95,834 million

China Construction Bank is ranked as the china's second largest and the eighth largest bank in the world by market capitalisation.

The bank was founded in Beijing in 1954 and is headquartered there.

The bank's key people are Guo Shuqing (chairman) Zhang Jianguo (president) and Xin Shusen (vice president).

The bank's market capital in 2011 stood at $186.136 billion, net income at $20.460 billion and total assets at $1640.263 billion.

The bank has about 301,537 employees.

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3. JP Morgan Chase & Co
Pre-tax profits: $24,859 million
Tier I capital: $142,450 million

JP Morgan Chase & Co is an American multinational banking corporation of securities, investments and retail.

It was formed in 2000, when Chase Manhattan Corporation merged with JP Morgan & Co.
It is the largest bank in the United States by assets and market capitalisation.

Headquartered at 270 Park Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, the bank's key person is

Jamie Dimon (chairman, president and CEO).

4. Bank of China
Pre-tax profits: $21,463 million
Tier I capital: $94,579 million

Bank of China Limited is one of the big four state-owned commercial banks of the People's Republic of China.

Founded in Beijing in 1912, the bank is headquartered there.

Its key people are Xiao Gang (chairman) and Li Lihui (president).

As of 2010, the bank employs about 389,827.

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HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company.

It has about 7,500 offices in 87 countries and territories across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America and around 100 million customers.

HSBC Holdings plc was founded in London in 1991 by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, the bank's key people are Douglas Flint (group chairman) and Stuart Gulliver (group chief executive).

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6. Wells Fargo & Co
Pre-tax profits: $18,700 million
Tier I capital: $109,353 million

Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational diversified financial services company with operations around the world.

Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the US by assets and the largest bank by market capitalisation.

Wells Fargo is a result of a 1998 merger between Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation and the original Wells Fargo.

In 1852, Henry Wells and William G Fargo (Mayor of Buffalo, New York), founders of American Express, formed Wells Fargo & Company to provide express and banking services to California.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the bank's key person is John G Stumpf (chairman, president & CEO).

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7. Agricultural Bank of China
Pre-tax profits: $18,230 million
Tier I capital: $79,285 million

Agricultural Bank of China Limited also known as AgBank, is one of the 'Big Four' banks in the People's Republic of China.

It was founded in 1951 and has its headquarters in Beijing.

It has branches throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney, Seoul, and Singapore.

ABC has 320 million retail customers, 2.7 million corporate clients, and nearly 24,000 branches.

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8. BNP Paribas
Pre-tax profits: $17,406 million
Tier I capital: $91,626 million

BNP Paribas is a global banking and financial services major and one of the six strongest banks in the world (Rated AA by Standard & Poor's, 3rd on a scale of 22).

Founded on May 23, 2000, the bank is headquartered in Boulevard des Italiens, Paris.

The bank's key people are Baudouin Prot (chairman) and Jean-Laurent Bonnafe (CEO).

The group has four domestic retail banking markets in France, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg.

It has one of the largest international networks with operations in 84 countries.

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9. Banco Santander
Pre-tax profits: $16,079 million
Tier I capital: $81,039

The Santander Group is a banking group centered on Banco Santander, S.A., the largest bank in the Eurozone.

Founded in Santander, Spain in 1857, the bank is headquartered there.

The bank serves Europe, Latin America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Africa, USA.

Its key people are Emilio Botin (chairman) and Alfredo Saenz Abad (CEO).

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10. Goldman Sachs
Pre-tax profits: $12,892 million
Tier I capital: $71,233 million

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc is a global investment banking and securities firm.

Goldman Sachs was founded in 1869 by German immigrant Marcus Goldman and is headquartered at the Lower Manhattan area of New York.

The group engages in investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients.

Despite the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis, Goldman was able to profit from the collapse in subprime mortgage bonds by short-selling subprime mortgage-backed securities.

However, the firm's viability was later questioned as the crisis intensified in September 2008.

The bank's key people are Lloyd Blankfein (chairman & CEO), Gary Cohn (president & COO), David Viniar (executive VP & CFO).

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11. Citigroup
Pre-tax profits: $12,273 million
Tier I capital: $126,193 million

Citigroup Inc. was formed by combining Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group on April 7, 1998.

It holds over 200 million customer accounts in more than 140 countries.

Citigroup Inc. has over 16,000 offices worldwide.

Headquartered in New York, the bank's key person is Vikram Pandit (CEO).

The company employs approximately 260,000 people.

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12. Itau Unibanco Holding
Pre-tax profits: $11,534 million
Tier I capital: $36,916 million

Itau Unibanco is a publicly quoted bank with headquarters in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The bank is the result of the merger of Banco Itau and Unibanco, on November 4, 2008.

The bank is listed at the BM&F Bovespa in Sao Paulo and in NYSE in New York. Currently it is the second biggest Brazilian bank by asset, after Banco do Brasil.

The bank's key people are Roberto Egydio Setubal, (CEO) and Pedro Moreira Salles, (chairman).

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13. Banco do Brasil
Pre-tax profits: $9,817 million
Tier I capital: $31,078 million

Banco do Brasil S.A. is the largest Brazilian and Latin American bank by assets, and the third by market value.

The bank, headquartered in Brasilia, was founded in 1808 and is the oldest active bank in Brazil.

It is also and one of the oldest financial institutions in the world.

The bank's key person is Aldemir Bendine, (chairman).

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14. Barclays
Pre-tax profits: $9,491 million
Tier I capital: $83,797 million

Barclays PLC is a major bank operating in Europe, the United States, West Asia, Latin America, Australia, Asia and Africa.

It operates through its subsidiary Barclays Bank PLC.

It is headquartered in London.

It is the sponsor of the English Premier League.

The bank's roots can be traced back to 1690 in London.

It borrowed its name from Alexander and David Barclay, who provided credit to slave traders.

The bank's key person is Marcus Agius, the group chairman.

Barclays being a member of the global ATM Alliance, its customers can use ATMs of other banks free of charge.

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15. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group
Pre-tax profits: $9,125 million
Tier I capital: $119,732 million

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. is a Japanese bank holding/financial services company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo.

The company was formed on October 1, 2005 with the merger of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group, formerly Japan's second-largest banking conglomerate, and Osaka-based UFJ Holdings, which was Japan's fourth-largest banking group.

Its key people are Ryosuke Tamakoshi (chairman), Haruya Uehara (deputy chairman) and Nobuo Kuroyanagi (president and CEO).

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16. Banco Bradesco
Pre-tax profits: $9,081 million
Tier I capital: $29,001 million

The bank's history can be traced back to March 10, 1943 when Banco Brasileiro de Descontos was founded by Amador Aguiar in the city of Mar lia, Sao Paulo.

The bank targeted small landowners, retailers, and government employees.

Headquartered in Osasco, Brazil, the bank's key person is Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi (CEO).

The bank at present employs 95.248 people.

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17. Credit Agricole
Pre-tax profits: $8,862 million
Tier I capital: $77,406 million

Credit Agricole SA is the largest retail banking group in France.

It is France's third-largest bank in terms of market capitalisation, with 59 million customers worldwide and 11,500 branches in 15 countries.

Headquartered in Paris, the bank's key people are Jean-Paul Chifflet (CEO)
and Jean-Marie Sander (chairman).

Credit Agricole is part of the CAC 40 stock market index.

The bank was the title sponsor of the Credit Agricole professional road cycling team from 1997 to 2008.

. . .

18. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group
Pre-tax profits: $8,621 million
Tier I capital: $76,074 million

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is a Japanese bank holding/financial services company established by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

Headquartered at Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, the key person is Teisuke Kitayama (president).

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19. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria
Pre-tax profits: $8,586 million
Tier I capital: $44,148 million

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, SA (BBVA) is a multinational Spanish banking group.

It was formed in 1999 from the merger of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya and Argentaria.

BBVA is the second largest bank in Spain and 7th largest financial institution in the Western world with a market capitalisation of over Euro 61 billion.

Founded in 1999, the bank is headquartered in Bilbao, Spain.

Its key people are Francisco Gonzalez (executive chairman), Angel Cano Fernandez (president and COO).

The bank now operates in 40 countries.

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20. UBS
Pre-tax profits: $8,338 million
Tier I capital: $37,578 million

The bank operates in more than 40 countries and is considered as the world's second largest manager of private wealth assets.

The bank came into being through the merger of Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation on December 8, 1997.

Headquartered in Zurich and Basel, the bank's chief executive officer is Oswald Grubel.

The bank employs more than 64,000 people.

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21. Westpac Banking Corporation
Pre-tax profits: $7,7774 million
Tier I capital: $24,563 million

The Westpac Group has branches and affiliates throughout Australia, New Zealand and the near Pacific region and maintains offices in key financial centres around the world including London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.

As of 31 March 2010, The Westpac Group had global assets of $601 billion.

Westpac is ranked among the top 5 listed companies by market capitalisation on the Australian Securities Exchange Limited.

. . .

22. Group BPCE
Pre-tax profits: $7686 million
Tier I capital: $54,836 million

Groupe BPCE is France's second largest bank.

It was formed by the 2009 merger of Caisse nationale des caisses d'epargne and BFBP Banque federale des banques populaires.

It has more than 8,200 branches nationwide serving nearly 40 million customers.

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23. Sberbank of Russia
Pre-tax profits: $7,551 million
Tier I capital: $29,460 million

This is the largest bank in Russia and Eastern Europe.

The company's headquarters are in Moscow and its history goes back to Cancrin's financial reform of 1841.

The bank's key people are Sergey Mikhaylovich Ignatev (chairman) and German Gref (CEO).

. . .

24. Bank of Communications
Pre-tax profits: $7,543 million
Tier I capital: $34,321 million

Bank of Communications Limited, founded in 1908, is one of the largest banks in China.

The Bank of Communications was founded in 1908 (the 34th year of the Guangxu reign period, Qing Dynasty).

Headquartered in Shanghai, the bank's key people are Chaoliang Jiang, chairman and Jianguo Zhang, president.

. . .

25. Societe Generale
Pre-tax profits: $7,298 million
Tier I capital: $47,277 million

Societe Generale S.A. is a large European Bank and a major Financial Services company that has a substantial global presence.

Its registered office is on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.

Its key person is Frederic Oudea (chairman and CEO).