Best Bank - Industrial & Commercial Bank of China
Best equity house - China International Capital Corporation
Best debt house - CITIC Securities
Best M&A house - Morgan Stanley
The big four banks in China still carry the burden of their years as instruments of government policy lending, most notably non-performing loans. However, it is fairer to judge them on their performance after being allowed to operate as conventional commercial banks. On this basis the choice is between Bank of China and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China. In terms of sheer size, ICBC comes out on top. With Rmb4.1 billion ($495 million) in deposits, 25,960 branches and 405,558 employees (down from a peak of 570,000), ICBC operates on a scale that dwarfs all but a few companies in the world.
However, size is not a criterion of quality and Bank of China, though it has only half the deposits and branch network, has a superior cost income ratio (39.65% versus ICBC's 56.37%) and similar profitability before provisions (Rmb42.7 billion compared with ICBC's Rmb44.8 billion). The two are neck and neck in terms of NPL ratios - Bank of China's is 22.49%, ICBC's 25.69%.