What is the name of the world's largest asset manager?

The world's largest asset manager is BlackRock.

Founded in 1988 by Larry Fink, Robert S. Kapito, Susan Wagner, and others, BlackRock began as an institutional investment manager focused on fixed income and risk management. It grew through organic expansion and major acquisitions, including Barclays Global Investors in 2009, which brought the iShares exchange-traded-fund business under BlackRock's control.

BlackRock manages money for pension funds, governments, institutions, financial advisers, and individual investors. Its investment products include mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, index funds, and alternative investments. The company also operates Aladdin, a widely used investment-risk and portfolio-management technology platform.

A common mix-up is confusing an asset manager with a bank. BlackRock generally manages clients' assets rather than holding those assets as its own deposits. Vanguard and State Street are also enormous asset managers, but BlackRock ranks first by assets under management.