The five largest domestic banks hold $8.5 trillion of assets, or 56% of the nation's GDP, and are bigger now than before the financial crisis.
The assets of the banks—JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Bank of America Corp. (BAC), Citigroup Inc. (C), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS)—represented 43% of U.S. output in 2007, according to Bloomberg, citing sources at the Federal Reserve.
"The 'Big Five' today are about twice as large as they were a decade ago relative to the economy," the news service says, "sparking concern that trouble at a major bank would rock the financial system and force the government to step in as it did in 2007 with the Fed-assisted rescue of Bear Stearns Cos. by JPMorgan and in 2008 with Citigroup and Bank of America after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history."
