Although the banking sector in China appears rather fragmented with more than 4 000 commercial banks (Bisio, 2020[21]), the total assets of China’s banking sector are concentrated among a few principal banks. At the end of 2023, the six largest state-owned commercial banks – the so-called “Big six” – and the 12 national joint-stock commercial banks held, respectively, 41.7% and 17% of all such assets, while the broad range of city commercial and rural banks each held 13‑14% of such assets.
The six largest state-owned commercial banks (i.e. the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Agricultural Bank of China, the Bank of China, the China Construction Bank, the Bank of Communications, and the Postal Savings Bank of China) remain majority-owned by the Chinese central government through the Ministry of Finance, Central Huijin Investment (a state-owned investment company), and other SEs. The picture appears slightly more complex for joint-stock commercial banks, as well as city commercial and rural banks. Although these banks are not directly majority-owned by the central government, some are indirectly majority-owned by the government through horizontal and vertical cumulative ownership (Figure 8).
