MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The top banking brands according to The Banker magazine

The HSBC brand value is estimated in 28.5 billion USD

HSBC has retained its place as the most valuable banking brand in the world. This is the third year in a row The Banker magazine and Brand Finance have awarded the self-styled “World's Local Bank” the title. The giant has increased its brand value by 12% to 28.5 billion US dollars.

The result was published in an annual review which shows the banking sector is starting to recover. It looked at the world's 500 most valuable banking groups and measures them by both their brand strength and value as of 31 December 2009.

David Haigh from Brand Finance told Sky News: “HSBC is very good at the basics, you know. It's extremely down to earth, delivering very good product, very good service and it has a tremendous advertising campaign.”

Bank of America is the second most valuable banking brand and Santander is the world's fastest growing retail bank brand, coming third overall.

A significant factor in the growth of the Spanish brand value has been the consolidation of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley brands.

US dominance of the global banking industry has declined with a drop in the number of US banks in the Global Top 500, down from 95 in 2008 to 85 in 2009.

Brian Caplen, editor of The Banker said: “In the wake of the financial crisis, banks are approaching the issue of branding with renewed vigour.

”However this cannot be a short-term project. What The Banker's brand ranking shows is that successful banks such as HSBC and Santander work at getting all the parts of the operation to work in favour of the branding”.