> Measured by their profits, the six largest financial institutions in the US now account for 55 percent of all banking assets.

And here the author has lost a generous slice of credibility. It's like saying "Measured by their clockspeed, the six largest CPUs in the US now account for 55 percent of all hard drive space".

I read it more as "The six most profitable financial institutions in the US now account for 55 percent of all banking assets" which makes sense to me.

So it's a failure of editing.

> Measured by their profits, the six largest financial institutions in the US now account for 55 percent of all banking assets.

should read

> The six largest financial institutions in the US, as measured by their profits, now account for 55 percent of all banking assets.