Ranking the Largest Banks and Credit Unions

We’ve added a new table that allows you to view and sort based on asset size and a few other size metrics of the largest banks and credit unions, on either a national level or a state level. Here’s the direct link to the table of the largest banks and credit unions in the U.S. A link to this table can also be found at the bottom of our Banking Calculators & Tools page.

If you have ever wondered about the relative sizes of the largest banks and credit unions, this table will be useful. It allows you to see how institutions compare to others. By default, the ranking is done by asset size. You can also sort by other size metrics that include the number of branches, geographic coverage area, number of employees, and number of deposit accounts. To sort based on these other measurements, just click on the respective column titles. This size data is updated each quarter soon after the FDIC and NCUA publish their quarterly reports.

By default, the rankings cover both banks and credit unions for all of the country. The top filter controls can be used to filter down to only credit unions or only banks. Also, you can limit the scope to include only specific states. State-based rankings can be limited to either institutions with headquarters in the state or all institutions with branches in the state.

To examine the details of any institution listed in the table, just click the name of the institution. That will take you to our information page for that institution that includes financial details, branch locations and deposit account rates.

You might notice a few institutions have “N/A” for the number of branches and number of states. These are internet banks.

The Largest U.S. Banks

From the FDIC 2016 Q2 reports, the four largest institutions are still the four mega banks (Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citibank). Each of these megabanks has over $1 trillion in assets. That’s a thousand billion dollars, for all of the math averse out there!

Out of the four mega banks, Chase has the most assets ($2.05 trillion). However, if you sort by all other measures in the table, Wells Fargo ranks number one. It has over 6,000 branches in 40 states. Wells Fargo also has seen the largest asset growth in the last year with an increase of 8.57%. We’ll have to see how recent events and the resulting bad publicity will affect its growth numbers.

Below these four mega banks are 20 large banks, each with assets over $100 billion. The largest is US Bank with $433.5 billion in assets and 3,211 branches in 26 states. The smallest of the $100-billion banks is BMO Harris bank with $107.5 billion in assets. BMO Harris just crossed the $100-billion mark in the last year.

Out of these 20 large banks, three have had asset growth of over 20% in the last year. Out of the three, Goldman Sachs Bank USA had the largest growth (23.64%). It’s now the 14th largest bank in the country with assets of $160.7 billion. With its April acquisition of the online deposit platform of GE Capital Bank, it now has an internet bank division operating under the name GS Bank.

M&T Bank ranks second in asset growth (21.70%). It’s now the 19th largest bank in the country with $123.1 billion in assets. In November 2015, M&T Bank completed the acquisition of Hudson City Savings Bank, which had assets of $35.1 billion.

Close behind M&T Bank is Charles Schwab Bank with asset growth of 20.44%. The linking of banking products with brokerage products has been popular. The bank was established just 13 years ago, and now with $153.9 billion in assets, it’s the 15th largest bank in the country.

The Largest U.S. Credit Unions

As you can see from the table, the largest credit unions are much smaller than the largest banks. No credit unions have assets over $100 billion. As mentioned above, 24 banks have assets over $100 billion, and four have assets over one trillion. In this previous article we looked at the total assets of banks and credit unions. Banks own 93% of the total assets compared to 7% owned by credit unions. Those percentages have held steady since 2007.

Based on the NCUA 2016 Q2 reports, Navy Federal Credit Union is by far the largest credit union in the nation. Its asset count of $77.8 billion is more than double its nearest competitor, State Employees' Credit Union in North Carolina ($33.8 billion). Only six credit unions have assets of over $10 billion. The tenth largest credit union (Star One Credit Union in California) has assets of $8.2 billion.

Out of the ten largest credit unions, Navy Federal grew the second most in the last year with a growth rate of 10.22%. The fastest growth was at First Technology Federal Credit Union in California, which grew by 12.67%. It’s the ninth largest credit union with assets of $9.1 billion.

Largest Banks and Credit Unions in Your State

You might be surprised by the largest banks and credit unions with headquarters in your state. Many of the largest institutions have chosen business-friendly states for their headquarters. A good example is South Dakota which is known for its low taxes and lenient lending regulations. This small state is home to the headquarters of Wells Fargo, Citibank and TCF National Bank.

Please give our bank and credit union size table a try. If you find anything interesting about the banks or credit unions in your state or if you find anything else noteworthy about the table, please leave a comment.