Ranking Banking Brands: Who’s on Top in 2010?

Bancography, a financial services consulting firm, released its 2010 rankings for its Bancography Brand Value Index (BBVI), a quantitative ranking of the brand strength of all US banks, thrifts and credit unions. The firm developed the system so that it could assist financial institutions with evaluating the strength of their brands. The index calculates the value of an institution’s brand and ranks that institution comparatively among its peers.

In determining a brand’s value, Bancography quantifies the proportion of each institution’s long-term value that is attributable to the intangible factors that constitute an institution’s brand. These factors include the institution’s reputation, service quality, image and market awareness. The brand value index identifies institutions that produce financial results beyond what their capital base, market conditions and competitive environments would predict. The calculations reward institutions that display consistently strong earnings and a reasonable cost of funds.

Only three of 2009’s leaders returned to the top 10, a reflection of the economy’s recent volatility. Similarly mirroring the broader economy, five banks based in Texas — a state that has weathered the recession better than nearly any other — reached the top 10 in the mid-sized tier.

"The 2010 BBVI reflects the fluid financial services landscape as providers continue to confront the aftermath of the recession," says John Mathes, Director/Bancography. Banks that pay homage to the pillars of sound brand strategy using clear differentiation and consistency of message reap the benefit at their competitors’ expense."

Oddly some of the bank brands most often celebrated by industry experts — banks like Umpqua and ING DIRECT — are nowhere to be found in Bancography’s rankings.

Do you want to know where your bank ranks? Easy. Just contact Bancography. "We will supply at no cost any institution’s ranking if they contact us," promises Mathes.

"But to make the rankings relevant as to how well an institution is doing in any given market, they would need to know their competitors’ index," continues Mathes. "So we sell a product called ‘Market Snapshot’ that supplies all community bank and credit union rankings by DMA. The Snapshot also contains helpful observations and insights from that DMA."

This is the third year Bancography has published its bank brand index. You can find the data for 2008 and 2009 on Bancography’s website. The BBVI includes parallel rankings for credit unions.