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HSBC Holdings PLC continued its reign as the largest bank in Europe by assets for the eighth consecutive year, while regaining its place among the top six global banks after three years, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The London-based bank held €2.419 trillion in assets at year-end 2019, about €254.76 billion more than France's BNP Paribas SA, Europe's second-largest. Another French bank, Crédit Agricole Group, ranked third with €2.011 trillion, and Spain's Banco Santander SA was fourth, with €1.517 trillion.
France's Société Générale SA overtook German rival Deutsche Bank AG in this year's ranking, to secure the No. 5 spot. The latter's merger talks with domestic rival Commerzbank AG collapsed in April 2019 after several months of media speculation, but Deutsche Bank continued to be Germany's largest lender, ranking at No. 8 this year after slipping three spots, with assets of €1.298 trillion.
A strengthening of the pound against the euro in 2019, amid optimism about U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's ability to get a deal on Britain's departure from the EU, spurred a rise in the asset size of London-based Barclays PLC, which moved to No. 6 from No. 8 in the ranking. At the end of 2019, the bank's assets were worth €1.346 trillion, but would have been worth €1.269 trillion using the year-end 2018 conversion rate. (To see the full impact of currency movements on bank assets in euros, download the Excel file linked below.)
Follow this link to download the above chart in Microsoft Excel.
Italy-based Intesa Sanpaolo SpA moved up the most places, to 10th from 14th, driven by its pending acquisition of Italian lender Unione di Banche Italiane SpA. Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland Group PLC was a new entrant in this year's ranking, landing at the No. 50 spot with €131.88 billion.
Germany has seven banks among the top 50, the most of any country, and these collectively have €3.112 trillion in assets. France and the U.K. are each home to six, which together hold €7.994 trillion and €6.527 trillion in assets, respectively.
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Company total assets were adjusted for pending mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as M&A deals that closed after the end of the reporting period used through March 31 on a best-efforts basis. Assets reported by non-euro filers were converted to euros using period-end exchange rates.
The majority of banks are ranked by total assets as of Dec. 31, 2019. In the previous ranking published April 11, 2019, most company assets were as of Dec. 31, 2018, and were adjusted for deals through March 31, 2019. No adjustments were made for differences between GAAP and IFRS filings.