STEVE INSKEEP, Host: NPR's business news starts with what claims to be the biggest bank in the world.</s>STEVE INSKEEP, Host: However, the Chinese bank, in making this claim to be the biggest in the world, did not mention the big Japanese bank Japan Post, which has nearly 2 trillion in deposits. And as the Financial Times notes, U.S. banks might be bigger but for a law that prevents them from controlling more than 10 percent of America's total deposits.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China already was the world's biggest bank by market capitalization. It is now the biggest bank by deposits as well. The Financial Times says it shows how Chinese banks have emerged relatively unscathed from the global crisis.