American banks are still the most valuable in the world, but Chinese competitors are hot on their tail, according to a new ranking of the world’s financial institutions.
The Brand Finance Banking 500 lists 60 US banks among the highest-value organisations, with a combined value of $210 billion and American bank Wells Fargo taking the top spot. However, the Chinese entities ICBC, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China took second, fourth, eighth and ninth place respectively.
This means that there now as many Chinese as American banks listed in the top ten, and China’s financial giants have pushed ahead of US stalwarts like Citi, Bank of America and Chase. In terms of the amount of brand value added this year, China is the clear winner, with five of the top six banks in this category being Chinese-owned.
The UK’s HSBC came in second, meanwhile, and Spain’s Santander just scraped the top ten. Across the board, European banks performed poorly, especially compared to their American and Chinese counterparts.
China isn’t the only country seeing rapid growth in its financial sector. When it comes to bank value, the ten fastest growing countries are Morocco (+98%), India (+61%), Nigeria (+52%), UAE (+45%), Colombia (+44%), Qatar (+44%), the Philippines (+43%), Saudi Arabia (+40%), China (+29%) and Bahrain (+29%).
