By 1978, when Mr Deng returned from yet another political exile to assume power, China's formal financial system had shrunk to a single institution, the People's Bank, whose head office was made up of 80 people buried within the Ministry of Finance.

ECONOMIST: China's financial system

It analyzed the largest bank holding companies in terms of total assets according to the National Information Center, a repository of financial data and institution characteristics collected by the Federal Reserve System.

FORBES: The 15 Best-Paying Big Banks

We only assessed the 20 largest bank holding companies in terms of total assets, as of December 2012, according to the National Information Center, a repository of financial data and institution characteristics collected by the Federal Reserve System.

FORBES: The Big Banks Hiring The Most Right Now

Ironically, the government's failure to restore public confidence in banks may be good news for its own postal savings system, which, as the world's biggest financial institution, controls about a third of the savings market and is badly in need of reform.

ECONOMIST: Bank reform in Japan

As a growing number of independent observers note, this institution is ultimately in the lending business, which is why useful reforms such as financial system transparency, the depoliticizing of banks, etc.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

After all, that's what such a designation means -- that the institution's failure must be avoided because of its potential impact on the economy or financial system.

WSJ: Not Everything Can Be Too Big to Fail