Ten Turkish banks on most valuable 500 list

ANKARA – Anatolia News Agency

DAILY NEWS photo / Emrah Güler

Ten Turkish banks rank among the list of the world’s most valuable 500 banking groups, dominated by the U.S. bank Wells Fargo, yet the total value of listed Turkish banks still falls behind those of BRIC countries.

Brand Finance, a respectable brand assessment firm operating in 20 countries worldwide including Turkey, has published its sixth annual list of the “World’s 500 Most Valuable Banking Brands” for 2012 in cooperation with Banker magazine.

Among the Turkish banks, Akbank has taken the top spot as the most valuable with a $2.121 billion brand value, rising ten places to 86th in the world according to last year’s data. Turkey’s İşbank, on the heels of Akbank, ranks second in Turkey and 89th on the worldwide list.

The Turkish banking sector’s positive performance, boosting growth and profitability have had an impact on the brand value of banks also, said Muhterem İlgüner, the Turkish branch manager of Brand Finance. “Diminishing the trade deficit and the upgrading of country notes might have been the additional positive effects.”

Despite the positive outlook of the Turkish banking sector on the list, the total value of the sector leaders still lags behind banks in Brazil, Russia, India and China, according to the research
Including the brand values of eight other Turkish banks – Garanti, Yapı Kredi, Halkbank, Vakıfbank, Finansbank, Denizbank, TEB and Bank Asya, listed according to order – the total value of the top ten banks of Turkey is around $10 billion, which is below each BRIC country, the global list suggests.

China leads the four BRİC countries with 23 banks valued at $96 billion, with the total value of eight Brazilian banks at $38 billion and eight Russian banks at $20 billion. Despite the quantitative advantage, the value of 20 Indian banks was just $14.5 billion.

Bad year for British banks

This year’s results depict recovery after the world banking crisis, said David Haigh, the CEO of Brand Finance.

The U.S.-based banks swept the list again this year as Well Fargo was deemed the most valuable bank in the world with a $26.044 billion value, while fellow American banks Chase, Bank of America and Citi ranked second, fourth and fifth, respectively.

The second place is held by HSBC, however, the list reflects British banks have lost both value and respectability in 2012, Haigh said.