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The six largest US banks are projected to add $600 billion in market value in 2025, driven by the Trump administration’s push to deregulate the industry and a revival in investment banking.
The collective market capitalization of the six largest US banks by assets – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley rose to $2.37tn at the close of trading on Tuesday, from $1.77tn at the end of last year, according to S&P Global data.
The six most valuable European banks have a combined market capitalization of just $1tn, highlighting the gap that has arisen between US banks and their European rivals since the financial crisis. US banks are on track to outperform the broader S&P 500 for the second year in a row.
After the 2008 financial crisis, the largest US banks were surrounded by regulations, leaving investors indifferent about the sector. However, those banks are now benefiting as the Trump administration has begun rolling back many regulations.
“You can’t underestimate how important this regulatory change is for stock prices,” said RBC banking analyst Gerard Cassidy. “The profitability of the industry was severely reduced due to the financial crisis as banks had to bring in a lot of capital, which was fair.”
So far this year, U.S. regulators have proposed allowing higher leverage at the country’s biggest banks, scrapping annual banking stress tests used to determine capital requirements and scrapping lending guidance for riskier loans.
Banks also estimate that the final implementation of so-called Basel III endgame global capital rules in 2023 will be much less onerous than the initial proposal under the Biden administration.
“They’re sitting on all that extra capital because they’ve already made it based on the other proposal,” Cassidy said.
Capital exists to absorb potential losses, but it can also be used to finance business activities as well as shareholder payments such as stock buybacks and dividends.
Some opponents of light regulation, such as Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, have expressed concerns about the scale of financial regulation. But investors have so far shown little concern about any increase in risk-taking by banks.
“This is a risk that could escalate further,” said Saul Martinez, head of U.S. financial equity research at HSBC. “But given how thin bank balance sheets have become, it makes sense that there is room to take on more risk.”
Citi’s shares have been the best performer among the six big US banks, rising nearly 70 percent by 2025 as the bank makes a years-long effort to simplify and cut costs. This month the bank traded above the sum of its parts for the first time since 2018.
Goldman shares have also surged nearly 60 percent during 2025 to a record high as improvements in its core business of investment banking lead bankers to expect further gains in 2026 and an extended boom in business.
Industry tracker CRISIL Coalition Greenwich estimates banks’ industry-wide revenues from both equity and fixed-income trading will surpass previous peaks this year, with $92bn from equity trading and $163bn from fixed income.
“Right now it almost seems a little too good to be true,” Martinez said. “The fundamentals are good. I think the question is how much it costs.”
