Middle East bank brand values slip back

Annual research by Brand Finance – the Banking 500 – includes 25 Middle East bank brands. The top regional performer is QNB at 120, down from 114 last year with a brand value of $1.31 billion, up from $1.26 billion. However, all of the regional banks represented in the listing have seen their placings slip back from 2012.

Only five of the Middle East banks actually show an absolute rise in their brand value for 2013: QNB, First Gulf Bank, Kuwait Finance House, Burgan Bank and Union National Bank. The listing includes nine banks from the UAE, four each from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, three from Kuwait, two from Bahrain and one each from Jordan, Morocco and Oman. The most valuable bank brand in the UAE is National Bank of Abu Dhabi at 146 (2012:118) with a brand value of $990 million (2012:$1.21 billion). Collectively, the Middle East banks represented in the listing have a total brand valuation of $10.53 billion for 2013, down more than six per cent on the previous year.

According to Brand Finance’s analysis, US bank Wells Fargo is the world’s most valuable bank brand with a brand value of $26 billion and there has been a 15 per cent increase overall in total bank brand values from $746.8 billion in 2012 to $860.7 billion in 2013, in contrast to over $100 billion lost the previous year

Despite murmurings of reduced growth Chinese banks have again performed well, with a total brand value increase of 335 per cent. UK banks, including 2012’s most valuable bank brand HSBC, have done poorly - the UK saw the total value of its bank brands fall (by two per cent).

Read more: http://www.gulfbase.com/news/middle-east-bank-brand-values-slip-back/228350