Crisis wipes $5.5 trillion off banks' value: study

LONDON (Reuters) - The financial crisis has wiped $5.5 trillion off the market value of the world's banks, equivalent to 10 percent of global GDP, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The Boston Consulting Group estimated the banking industry's market value fell $4 trillion by the end of 2008, and lost a further $700 billion in the first three weeks of this year.

Banks were worth $8.8 trillion in the third quarter of 2007, when the financial crisis began in earnest.

Only four banks had market values greater than $100 billion at the end of 2008 -- China's ICBC (601398.SS) and China Construction Bank (601939.SS), U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N) and Britain's HSBC (HSBA.L) -- compared with 11 at the end of 2007, the report said.

The market value of the 30 largest banks slumped 47 percent in 2008 to $1.7 trillion.

JPMorgan Chase moved to third in the global rankings, behind China's top two lenders.

Also moving up the rankings into the top 10 were U.S. lender Wells Fargo (WFC.N) and Spain's BBVA (BBVA.MC).

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by David Cowell)