Mr.Mister

HSBC top ranked bank in Forbes 2000

HSBC is the top-rated company in the banking industry in the 2009 Forbes Global 2000, the business magazine's ranking of the world's biggest companies. HSBC is sixth overall in the annual league table.

Banks beat a retreat in this year's list, a symptom of recent global financial turbulence. The Times of London wrote that this year's list is notable "more for its demotions and expulsions as for its promotions" with oil majors regaining their pole position while big financial names are ejected.

Yet an analysis of the Global 2000 shows that despite the turmoil in the banking industry, banks still dominate, with 307 companies in the line-up, thanks in large measure to their asset totals. Forbes' ranking of the world's biggest companies uses an equal weighting of sales, profits, assets and market value to rank companies according to size.

"Even a depression is a place for opportunity if you have cash, scale and ambition. Many of the names on this year's Forbes Global 2000 list of the world's biggest companies will emerge on the other side of the trough far stronger when world economies snap back next year. For the strong corporations, there are rivals to buy, technologies to fund and new markets to enter--all at lower prices than we've seen in years," Forbes wrote in the introduction to the list.