Three systems theorists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have taken a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide and analysed all 43,060 transnational corporations and share ownerships linking them. They built a model of who owns what and what their revenues are and mapped the whole edifice of economic power.

They discovered that global corporate control has a distinct bow-tie shape, with a dominant core of 147 firms radiating out from the middle. Each of these 147 own interlocking stakes of one another and together they control 40% of the wealth in the network. A total of 737 control 80% of it all. The top 20 are at the bottom of the post. This is, say the paper’s authors, the first map of the structure of global corporate control dominated by banks, institutional investors and mutual funds.

The top 50 of the 147 super-connected companies

1. Barclays plc
2. Capital Group Companies Inc
3. FMR Corporation
4. AXA
5. State Street Corporation
6. JP Morgan Chase & Co¨
7. Legal & General Group plc
8. Vanguard Group Inc
9. UBS AG
10. Merrill Lynch & Co Inc
11. Wellington Management Co LLP
12. Deutsche Bank AG
13. Franklin Resources Inc
14. Credit Suisse Group
15. Walton Enterprises LLC
16. Bank of New York Mellon Corp
17. Natixis
18. Goldman Sachs Group Inc
19. T. Rowe Price Group Inc
20. Legg Mason Inc
21. Morgan Stanley
22. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc
23. Northern Trust Corporation
24. Soci Gnrale
25. Bank of America Corporation
26. Lloyds TSB Group plc
27. Invesco plc
28. Allianz SE
29. TIAA
30. Old Mutual Public Limited Company
31. Aviva plc
32. Schroders plc
33. Dodge & Cox
34. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc
35. Sun Life Financial Inc
36. Standard Life plc
37. CNCE
38. Nomura Holdings Inc
39. The Depository Trust Company
40. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance
41. ING Groep NV
42. Brandes Investment Partners LP
43. Unicredito Italiano SPA
44. Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan
45. Vereniging Aegon
46. BNP Paribas
47. Affiliated Managers Group Inc
48. Resona Holdings Inc
49. Capital Group International Inc
50. China Petrochemical Group Company

* Lehman still existed in the 2007 dataset used
schuman-en banking

Further Study
The Committee of 300, The Olympians
Committee of 300s Star Group

Tags : Affiliated Managers Group Inc, Allianz SE 29. TIAA, Aviva plc, AXA, Bank of America Corporation, Bank of New York Mellon Corp, Barclays plc, BNP Paribas, Brandes Investment Partners LP, Capital Group Companies Inc, Capital Group International Inc, China Petrochemical Group Company, CNCE, Credit Suisse Group, Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan, Deutsche Bank AG, Dodge & Cox, FMR Corporation, Franklin Resources Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, ING Groep NV, Invesco plc, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Legal & General Group plc, Legg Mason Inc, Lloyds TSB Group plc, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Natixis, Nomura Holdings Inc, Northern Trust Corporation, Old Mutual Public Limited Company, Resona Holdings Inc, Schroders plc, Soci Gnrale, Standard Life plc, State Street Corporation, Sun Life Financial Inc, T Rowe Price Group Inc, The Committee of 300, The Depository Trust Company, UBS AG, Unicredito Italiano SPA, Vanguard Group Inc, Vereniging Aegon, Walton Enterprises LLC, Wellington Management Co LLP