Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is now the world's most valuable bank

According to a report from Bloomberg, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is now the world's most valuable bank, winning its duel1 with Wells Fargo & Company.

 

Wells Fargo is an American multinational2 banking3 and financial services holding company which is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

 

ICBC's market capitalization was $315 billion on Thursday, 11 percent more than Wells Fargo.

 

The report says Chinese banks' gains may be getting support from policies of monetary4 easing, lowering their funding costs and limiting bad loans.

 

China has cut interest rates and lenders' reserve requirements twice since November.

 

ICBC reported a net profit increase of 5.1 percent year on year to 276.3 billion yuan or $45.3 billion in 2014.

 

The bank's total assets also hit 20.6 trillion yuan, up 8.9 percent year on year.

 

ICBC now has become the largest bank in the world by both total assets and market capitalization.