top 10 most valuable banking brands in the world - Brand Finance

USA
At the end of 2009, America’s Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported that
American banks as a whole reported earnings
only “slightly above breakeven”. While that
passed for good news at the time, it seems
that the headlines in its September 2010 report
were positively gushing: 1 :
• Year-Over-Year Earnings Improve for Fifth
Consecutive Year
• Asset Quality Trends Continued to
Improve
• Industry Assets Increase by $163 Billion
From a time before the first of these reports
and the recent one, a dizzying level of public
discussion has transpired regarding what
should be done regarding the restoration
of banking in the United States, including
reversion to the separation between depository
and investment banking per the Glass Steagall
Act of 1933, the breaking up of institutions
“too big to fail”, enacting early warnings to
detect systematic risks, limiting executive pay,
increasing banking reserve requirements,
increasing regulatory authority for Federal
Reserve over banks, severely reducing banks’
rights to engage in proprietary trading among
many, many other suggestions.
Some of these suggestions were enacted
in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act in July 2010,
though some criticized this law since it did
little to address what many feel was a major
contributor to banking difficulties and hence the
undermining of many banking brands, namely
the role of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae -- the
government sponsored companies formed to
trade in secondary mortgage obligations and
therefore expand the pool of funds available as
mortgages.
1 FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile, September, 2010
Country Focus
Only time will tell who is right, but for now there
is no question that the banking industry in the
United States is improving and the American
banking brands on this year’s index are no
exception, issues remain.
Many small businesses do not feel that banks,
despite their gathering strength, have played
a sufficient role yet in stimulating the US
economy with capital formation. Perhaps this
should not be a surprise since the number of
banks classified as “problems” by the FDIC
continues to rise, albeit at a slower pace 1 :
Year Quarter Number
2009 1 305
2 416
3 552
4 702
2010 1 775
2 829
3 860
In America the contrast between big business
and local business is embodied in the phrases
“Wall Street” and “Main Street”. In many
commercial endeavors, this contrast is stark
and distinct. In banking, it is less so since the
Wall Street banks also have thousands of
branches as deposit-receiving and mortgage
lending channels throughout the American
Main Streets.
And on Main Street, the mortgage crisis is
not yet over. Phoenix, for example, recently
reported that it is only halfway through the
restructuring of its mortgage crisis. If this
is emblematic of all of the Main Streets of
America, the rebuilding of banking brands in
the US still has a way to go.
Most observers of the industry believe that
even among (and perhaps especially) the
biggest banking brands, consolidation will
15 © Brand Finance plc 2011