The four largest banks by assets across the world all came from China, which reported under International Financial Reporting Standards, also known as IFRS, with a combined $13.64trillion in assets, up $1.73 trillion from last year's figure, according to the latest global bank ranking by data and research provider S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd, China Construction Bank Corp, Agricultural Bank of China Ltd and Bank of China Ltd got the first four spots, though a report about the ranking on the website of S&P Global Market Intelligence attributed half of the growth to the yuan strengthening against the US dollar during that time frame.

The report said that total company assets in the ranking were adjusted for pending mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, as well as M&A deals that closed after the end of the reporting period through March 31 on a best-efforts basis. And the majority of banks were ranked by total assets as of Dec 31, 2017.

Total assets were taken on an "as-reported" basis and no adjustments were made to account for differing accounting standards, it explained.

Assets data was reported in native currencies and converted to US dollars using period-end exchange rates, the ranking noted.

There was no change for the top nine spots compared with the previous year, and Wells Fargo & Co from the US dropped from the top 10; instead, France's Crédit Agricole Group got the 10th place.

The full-list of top 10 largest banks is shown as follows:

No 10 Crédit Agricole Group

Headquarters: France

Accounting principle: IFRS

Total assets: $2,117.16 billion