Three of Australia's big banks have improved their rankings in Boston Consulting Group's list of the world's largest banks by market capitalisation.  Commonwealth Bank moved up one place to be ranked 13 (based on market cap at the end of last year). ANZ moved up three places, to be ranked 24, and NAB moved up two places to be ranked 27.Westpac slipped back two spots to nineteenth place.ICBC, China Construction Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo made up the world's top five.BCG found that the global banking industry continued its recovery from the financial crisis last year but at a slower pace than in 2009.After collapsing from US$8.7 trillion in 2007 to $4.2 trillion in 2008, total world banking market capitalisation increased 52 per cent to $6.4 trillion in 2009. Total market cap increased by 11 per cent, to $7.1 trillion last year.Australian banks recorded the third-highest average return on equity last year. The ROE for Swiss banks, at 16 per cent, was highest, followed by Canadian banks, at 15.5 per cent, and Australian banks at 15.3 per cent. The global average ROE increased from 4.8 per cent in 2009 to 9.6 per cent last year. ROE is still short of the global average of 17.8 per cent achieved in 2006, and BCG says it may never get back there in the new risk-averse, capital-intensive world banking world being created by Basel III.