March 9, 2026, 7:32 a.mMarch 9, 2026, 7:32 a.m
Europe’s leading banks have caught up somewhat compared to their US competitors over the past year. However, the lead of the US institutions remains large, as the consulting and auditing company EY calculated.
While the ten largest European institutions were able to increase their profits overall by almost eight percent within a year, their competitors in the United States recorded a decline in results of around nine percent.
Nevertheless, the cumulative net profit of the top 10 in the USA, at the equivalent of almost 164 billion euros, was almost 80 percent higher than that of the ten largest banks in Europe in terms of total assets, which together came to around 92 billion euros. In all years of the past decade, US banks were ahead.
Tariff policy weighs on US banks
However, the latest analysis shows that the US government’s customs policy is not leaving US banks unscathed, explained EY partner Ralf Eckert. Credit quality has deteriorated noticeably for the second year in a row. “Nevertheless, it remains to be noted that the US banks are still superior to their European peers in important key figures – although not as clearly as in the recent past,” said Eckert.
JPMorgan way ahead in profits
The leader of the banks examined is once again by far the major US bank JPMorgan Chase with the equivalent of around 48.6 billion euros in profits in 2025. According to the EY analysis, the highest result among the major European banks was achieved last year by HSBC with a profit of almost 19 billion euros.
The US bank JPMorgan Chase remains the front runner.Image: X02954
In terms of profitability, the gap between the USA and Europe has also closed somewhat: a return on equity (RoE) of 11.6 percent for US banks compares with a value of 9.8 percent in Europe for 2025. A year earlier the ratio was 12.1 to 9.0 percent. The return on equity puts the profit in relation to the equity capital used and therefore shows how efficiently a company has used this money. (hkl/sda/dpa)