Global brand research group Brand Finance has published its 2019 Global 500 Banking report – ranking the most valuable banks in world, including eight banks from South Africa.

Brand Finance ranks banking groups by their brand value, which is calculated by measuring a brand’s performance on intangible measures, relative to its competitors.

Factors that are considered include marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and the impact of those on business performance.

Each brand is assigned a Brand Strength Index (BSI) score out of 100, which feeds into the brand value calculation. Based on the score, each brand is assigned a corresponding rating up to AAA+ in a format similar to a credit rating.

As has become the norm, on a global scale US and Chinese banks dominate the upper reaches of the ranking. However, for the first time, Chinese banks have taken up all four of the top places, led by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), followed by China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China.

US banks follow in the next four places, led by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citi Bank and Chase.

The only non-US and Chinese bank in the top 10 is the UK’s HSBC.

According to Brand Finance, ICBC’s brand value is US$79.8 billion – double that of the closest US competitor (Wells Fargo) at $39.9 billion.

South African banks

No South African bank placed within the top 100, with First National Bank (FNB), the highest placed local bank at 141 on the list – the same position as the 2018 ranking.

According to the report FNB’s brand value currently sits at US$1.7 billion, and is the most valuable banking brand from Africa, growing 20% from 2018.

FNB is closely followed by Absa at 150th (down from 143rd), Standard Bank at 156th (down from 144th) and then Nedbank, Investec and Capitec – all down from their positions last year.

Capitec saw the biggest drop from all SA banks, slipping almost 20 places on the global ranking, moving from 254th to 273rd.

Rand Merchant Bank was the only local bank to climb the rankings in 2019, moving up from 377th to 371st – but 2019 also saw WesBank debut on the list at 457th.

Brand name Rank 2018 Rank 2019 First National Bank 141 141 ABSA 143 150 Standard Bank 144 156 Investec 177 186 Nedbank 182 188 Capitec 254 273 Rand Merchant Bank 377 371 WesBank – 457

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