Visualizing $79 Trillion in U.S. Financial Sector Assets

Visualizing $79 Trillion in U.S. Financial Sector Assets

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The U.S. financial sector holds trillions of assets, with the largest institutions being banks, mutual funds, and insurance companies.

Overall, banks and credit unions hold 35% of the total assets of major institutions, growing by 5.6% on average annually since 1998. Meanwhile, assets held in mutual funds have grown on average 8.3% annually over the period, led by giants Vanguard and Fidelity.

This graphic shows select U.S. financial sectors by total assets, based on data from the Federal Reserve.

Breaking Down the Assets of U.S. Financial Institutions

Below, we show the total assets of major financial institutions as of Q2 2024:

Last year, 4,750 commercial banks and 4,604 credit unions in the U.S. held $27.7 trillion in assets.

JPMorgan Chase ranks as the largest bank overall, with $3.6 trillion in assets as of September 2024. Following next in line are Bank of America and Citibank, with $2.6 trillion and $1.7 trillion in assets, respectively.

The mutual fund industry, with 7,222 funds in America as of 2023, holds $20.9 trillion in assets. Roughly one in two American households invest in mutual funds, standing at a historical high. It’s worth noting the Federal Reserve does not specifically note data for exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but data from Cerulli Associates shows that U.S. assets surpassed $10 trillion in November 2024, hitting a historical high.

Insurance companies are the third largest overall, with $13.3 trillion in assets. Overall, life insurance firms hold the majority, at $9.9 trillion in assets. In 2023, New York Life Group and Northwestern Mutual Group stood as America’s biggest life insurance firms, based on the value of direct premiums written. In short, these are the premiums paid by customers that year.

Amid a booming stock market, hedge fund assets grew at the fastest rate, jumping by 16.3% between Q2 2023 and Q2 2024. Notably, hedge fund leverage stood near its highest level in more than a decade, reflecting strong risk appetite amid investor optimism.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic from an asset market perspective, check out this graphic on the size of U.S. asset markets in 2024.