Global bank profits hit $920 bln as Chinese lenders boom

LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - China's top banks accounted foralmost one-third of a record $920 billion of profits made by theworld's top 1000 banks last year, showing their rise in powersince the financial crisis, a survey showed on Monday.

China's banks made $292 billion in aggregate pretax profitlast year, or 32 percent of the industry's global earnings,according to The Banker magazine's annual rankings of theprofits and capital strength of the world's biggest 1,000 banks.

Last year's global profits were up 23 percent from theprevious year to their highest ever level, led by profits of $55billion at Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). China Construction Bank, AgricultureBank of China and Bank of China filledthe top four positions.

Banks in the United States made aggregate profits of $183billion, or 20 percent of the global tally, led by Wells Fargo's earnings of $32 billion.

Banks in the eurozone contributed just 3 percent to theglobal profit pool, down from 25 percent before the 2008financial crisis, the study showed. Italian banks lost $35billion in aggregate last year, the worst performance by anycountry.

Banks in Japan made $64 billion of profit last year, or 7percent of the global total, followed by banks in Canada, Franceand Australia ($39 billion in each country), Brazil ($26billion) and Britain ($22 billion), The Banker said.

The magazine said ICBC kept its position as the world'sstrongest bank, based on how much capital they hold - whichreflects their ability to lend on a large scale and endureshocks.

China Construction Bank jumped to second from fifth in therankings of strength and was followed by JPMorgan, Bankof America and HSBC.

ICBC, which took the top position last year for the firsttime, was one of four Chinese banks in the latest top 10.

Wells Fargo has this year jumped to become the world'sbiggest bank by market value, after a surge in its share priceon the back of sustained earnings growth. Its market value is$275 billion, about $75 billion more than ICBC.

The Banker said African banks made the highest returns oncapital last year of 24 percent - double the average in the restof the world and six times the average return of 4 percent atEuropean lenders. (Reporting by Steve Slater. Editing by Jane Merriman)