When one is talking about the top banks, it need not necessarily be based on the assets only. Other aspects form the basis. Online banks may be far more popular than the brick and mortar banks. At their advent, it was thought that online banks would mean the death of old world banks. It certainly did not happen that way. More likely, each would do well in their own domains.

• JP Morgan Chase and Co. has an asset of $ 2.35 trillion and is the wealthiest top bank with headquarters in New York. It was formed in 1996 by the merger of many smaller entities. Having 94 branches, 214 ATMs, and five Chase express banking operating in over 100 countries. Their financial services of investment banking, private banking, wealth management, commercial banking, and brokerages served millions of people, some of the biggest international corporations, governments, and innumerable small businesses.
• Bank of America (BoA) was set up in the October of 1904 by Amadeo Giannini, initially known as Bank of Italy with headquarters in Charlotte, in North Carolina. With an asset base of $ 2.185 trillion, it is the second richest top bank. It has a net income of $15.89 billion, 5,000 branches, 16,300 ATMs. It retrenched a large workforce, exited the China Construction Company and weathered the federal government accusations of cheating schools and hospitals through illegal transactions.
• Wells Fargo was established by Henry Wells and William Fargo with headquarters at San Francisco, California, and is the third wealthiest top bank in the US and the first in the world by market capitalization. They have $1.849 trillion in assets, 8,700 branches, and 1,300ATMs across 35 countries. The bank and insurance firms were ranked first for their environmental conservations. The bank supported environmental programs like supplying 185 solar power projects. The federal government charged the bank of misguiding African Americans into costly loans and not reporting money laundering. After the financial crisis, the bank was given $25 billion as recovery fund.
• Citigroup is a financial service multinational with its headquarter in Manhattan, New York founded in June of 1812 and Citibank is their consumer division. Its services include standard banking transactions, market insurance, credit cards and an online division and ATMs. They suffered massive losses during the financial crisis and was rescued by the federal government. In spite of all the crisis, the top bank is at the 4th place with assets of $1.801 trillion and the largest cash surplus of all commercial top banks with $420 billion.
• Goldman Sachs Group, with headquarters at New York, was founded by Marcus Goldman and Samuel Sachs. They first used commercial papers as an investment instrument. The top bank has the distinction of making a profit during the financial crisis. Along with Deutsche, Bank Goldman Sachs led Apple’s largest corporate bond deal in 2013 and acquired GE in 2015.
• Ally Bank is considered as one of the best online top banks. It has very competitive interest rates both for savings and checking accounts. It reimburses up to $10 of ATM charges and allows six fee-free transactions per billing cycle, no monthly maintenance charges, interest compounded daily, remote deposit checking with Allay eCheck Deposit and deposits insured by FDI up to the maximum allowed by law. 24/7 personal customer service, online and Mobile banking is provided.
• First Internet Bank of Indiana has competitive CD interest but has small fees to many of its accounts. They offer all banking services to customers nationwide. They have the largest number of ATMs, and investment interest rates compensate the small charges they levy.
• Discover Bank provides excellent free checking account especially for frequent debit card users providing cash back without maintaining a high balance. Innovative reward checking account, deposits carrying good interest rates, a wide range of banking services, a variety of loans and deposits and credit products. It, however, does not reimburse out of network ATM use charges.
• Bank of Internet USA offers unlimited reimbursement of out of network usage fee. It has a reward checking account that gives cashback for debit card users, covers main banking services, and disburses home equity loans, credit lines, and mortgages. A minimum deposit of $100 is required but no monthly fee or minimum balance. Interest on offer is fairly high except for short-term CDs.
  There are many top banks which are as better than any other banks. It depends on the criteria of review. There are lots of websites where reviews of top banks are available. One should do due diligence before selecting a bank.