What it is
Total assets is the sum of every asset line: cash, balances at NRB and other banks, loans, investments, fixed assets and other items.
It is the standard way to say how big a bank is. 'The largest bank by assets' means by this number.
It is also the denominator of return on assets (ROA), which asks how much profit the bank makes per rupee of assets.
How it is calculated
Sum of all asset lines. Identity check: Total assets = Total liabilities + Total equity.
Worked on Nabil Bank Limited, FY 2082/83 Q4
NABIL's total assets were Rs 73,473.16 crore at the end of FY 2082/83 Q4. Of this, loans to customers were Rs 46,031.78 crore and investments Rs 12,753.53 crore.
What good looks like
Growth in line with deposits and the economy is normal. Use it as a scale, not a score: divide profit by it (ROA) or equity by it to judge the bank.
Watch out
- Big is not the same as strong. Judge quality with NPL and capital ratios.
- A merger makes total assets jump without any real growth.
- Assets in crore and arba are easy to misread; check the unit on the report.
In Nepal
NEPSE and the press rank Nepali banks by total assets, deposits and loans. NRB's own ratios (capital, NPL) use other denominators, not total assets.
Questions
Every rupee the bank holds came from somewhere: either from someone it owes (liabilities) or from shareholders (equity). So the two sides must match.
Not necessarily. Dividends depend on profit per share and distributable profit, not on size.