Finance
Ranked: The World’s Most Valuable Bank Brands (2019-2023)
The World’s Most Valuable Bank Brands (2019-2023)
Since 2019, Chinese banks have held the top four spots on Brand Finance’s Banking 500—an annual ranking of the most valuable bank brands.
Brand value in this context is a measure of the “value of the trade mark and associated marketing IP within the branded business”. In other words, it measures the value of intangible marketing assets, and not the overall worth of the business itself.
In this infographic, we’ve visualized the Banking 500’s top 10 brands since 2019 to show you how the ranking has evolved (or stayed the same).
Top Bank Brands of 2023
The 10 most valuable bank brands of 2023 are evenly split between China and the United States. In terms of combined brand value, China leads with $262 billion to America’s $165 billion.
Rank | Bank | Brand Value (USD billions) |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇨🇳 ICBC | $69.5 |
2 | 🇨🇳 China Construction Bank | $62.7 |
3 | 🇨🇳 Agricultural Bank of China | $57.7 |
4 | 🇨🇳 Bank of China | $47.3 |
5 | 🇺🇸 Bank of America | $38.6 |
6 | 🇺🇸 Wells Fargo | $33.0 |
7 | 🇺🇸 JP Morgan | $31.8 |
8 | 🇺🇸 Chase | $31.3 |
9 | 🇺🇸 Citi | $30.6 |
10 | 🇨🇳 China Merchants Bank | $24.5 |
Chinese banks have a massive market to serve, which helps to lift the perceived value of their brands. For example, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) serves over 500 million individuals as well as several million business clients.
It’s worth noting that ICBC is the world’s largest bank in terms of assets under management ($5.5 trillion as of Dec 2021), and in terms of annual revenues ($143 billion as of Dec 2022). The bank was founded just 39 years ago in 1984.
After ICBC, the next three spots are occupied by the rest of China’s “big four” banks, all of which are state-owned.
The fifth to ninth spots on this ranking are occupied by an assortment of America’s largest banks. Despite a string of controversies in recent years, Wells Fargo rose from eighth in 2022 to sixth in 2023. This goes to show that large corporations can often recover from a scandal in a relatively short period of time (e.g. Volkswagen’s Dieselgate).
Coming in tenth is China Merchants Bank, which is China’s first “joint-stock commercial bank wholly owned by corporate legal entities”.
Top Asset Management Brands
Brand Finance’s 2023 ranking also includes a separate category for asset managers.
Rank | Asset Manager | Brand Value (USD billions) |
---|---|---|
1 | 🇨🇦 Brookfield | $9.0 |
2 | 🇺🇸 Fidelity | $8.4 |
3 | 🇺🇸 BlackRock | $6.6 |
4 | 🇺🇸 Blackstone | $4.9 |
5 | 🇨🇳 Cinda International Holdings Limited | $3.2 |
6 | 🇺🇸 Vanguard | $2.9 |
7 | 🇺🇸 Union Investment | $2.3 |
8 | 🇺🇸 Franklin Templeton Investments | $2.1 |
9 | 🇺🇸 Ameriprise Financial | $2.0 |
10 | 🇺🇸 Invesco | $1.5 |
Given America’s leadership in financial markets, it’s no surprise to see eight out of the 10 firms listed here as being based in the United States. The number one spot, however, is held by Canada’s Brookfield. The Canadian alternative asset manager is building a strong brand through its investments in renewable energy and other high-value infrastructure.
Money
De-Dollarization: Countries Seeking Alternatives to the U.S. Dollar
The U.S. dollar is the dominant currency in the global financial system, but some countries are following the trend of de-dollarization.

De-Dollarization: Countries Seeking Alternatives to U.S. Dollar
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The U.S. dollar has dominated global trade and capital flows over many decades.
However, many nations are looking for alternatives to the greenback to reduce their dependence on the United States.
This graphic catalogs the rise of the U.S. dollar as the dominant international reserve currency, and the recent efforts by various nations to de-dollarize and reduce their dependence on the U.S. financial system.
The Dollar Dominance
The United States became, almost overnight, the leading financial power after World War I. The country entered the war only in 1917 and emerged far stronger than its European counterparts.
As a result, the dollar began to displace the pound sterling as the international reserve currency and the U.S. also became a significant recipient of wartime gold inflows.
The dollar then gained a greater role in 1944, when 44 countries signed the Bretton Woods Agreement, creating a collective international currency exchange regime pegged to the U.S. dollar which was, in turn, pegged to the price of gold.
By the late 1960s, European and Japanese exports became more competitive with U.S. exports. There was a large supply of dollars around the world, making it difficult to back dollars with gold. President Nixon ceased the direct convertibility of U.S. dollars to gold in 1971. This ended both the gold standard and the limit on the amount of currency that could be printed.
Although it has remained the international reserve currency, the U.S. dollar has increasingly lost its purchasing power since then.
Russia and China’s Steps Towards De-Dollarization
Concerned about America’s dominance over the global financial system and the country’s ability to ‘weaponize’ it, other nations have been testing alternatives to reduce the dollar’s hegemony.
As the United States and other Western nations imposed economic sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow and the Chinese government have been teaming up to reduce reliance on the dollar and to establish cooperation between their financial systems.
Since the invasion in 2022, the ruble-yuan trade has increased eighty-fold. Russia and Iran are also working together to launch a cryptocurrency backed by gold, according to Russian news agency Vedmosti.
In addition, central banks (especially Russia’s and China’s) have bought gold at the fastest pace since 1967 as countries move to diversify their reserves away from the dollar.
How Other Countries are Reducing Dollar Dependence
De-dollarization it’s a theme in other parts of the world:
- In recent months, Brazil and Argentina have discussed the creation of a common currency for the two largest economies in South America.
- In a conference in Singapore in January, multiple former Southeast Asian officials spoke about de-dollarization efforts underway.
- The UAE and India are in talks to use rupees to trade non-oil commodities in a shift away from the dollar, according to Reuters.
- For the first time in 48 years, Saudi Arabia said that the oil-rich nation is open to trading in currencies besides the U.S. dollar.
Despite these movements, few expect to see the end of the dollar’s global sovereign status anytime soon. Currently, central banks still hold about 60% of their foreign exchange reserves in dollars.
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