Where Data Tells the Story
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The post-financial crisis era has been largely shaped by an unprecedented expansion of central bank balance sheets. The response, necessitated by the crisis and then the pandemic, has resulted in central banks holding trillions of dollars in assets.
Even with the monetary policy tightening over the last few years, the scale of central bank balance sheets remains historically high. This chart ranks the world’s top 20 central banks from around the world by total assets – highlighting where global monetary power remains the most concentrated. The chart is based on the data as reported by central banks to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) for the month of September/October, 2025.
Key takeaways from the data are:
Central bank assets consist primarily of government bonds, foreign exchange reserves, and liquidity facilities acquired through monetary policy operations and financial-stability measures.
Note: Data reflects the most recently available observations, primarily from September–October 2025. Euro-Area data represents the consolidated Euro-system balance sheet. Russia is excluded as comparable, up-to-date data is not consistently available. Source: Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
Link to access data: https://data.bis.org/topics/CBTA/tables-and-dashboards