(Yicai) Nov. 28 -- China’s five biggest banks, which include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China, continue to be critical to worldwide financial stability, according to the latest ranking of global systematically important banks.

Four of the banks -- ICBC, BOC, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank -- remain in bucket 2, per the 2024 G-SIB list recently released by the Financial Stability Board, an international organization that monitors and promotes the stability of the global financial system.

Shanghai-based Bank of Communications, which entered the rankings for the first time last year, stayed in bucket 1.

G-SIBs are financial institutions whose failure could trigger a wider financial crisis and threaten the world economy. Set up in 2009 following the global financial crisis, the Basel-based FSB updates the G-SIB list annually, evaluating lenders across five dimensions, including size, complexity, and substitutability. The buckets are a tiered system used to categorize them, with bucket 5 representing the highest systemic importance.

This year's list comprises 29 lenders, including JP Morgan Chase (bucket 4), Citigroup (bucket 3), and HSBC (bucket 3). The tally remains unchanged from last year, with only two changes: Groupe Crédit Agricole got upgraded to bucket 2 from bucket 1 and Bank of America moved to bucket 2 from bucket 3.

Fitch China Bohua Credit Ratings noted in a recent report that the four bucket-two Chinese banks face no challenges in meeting the FSB's 2025 recommendations. BOC, ABC, ICBC, and CCB are expected to satisfy the requirement of 16 percent in risk-weighted assets and 6 percent total loss-absorbing capacity by Jan. 1, 2025. It also observed that gaps in the 2028 requirements have contracted notably.

Editors: Xu Wei, Emmi Laine