Brand Finance’s recently published Banking 500 report contains good news regarding our partnership with China’s largest commercial bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
Almost a decade ago, ICBC acquired a significant stake in the Standard Bank Group, creating a strategic collaboration that would give us further international reach and provide us with greater access to one of the world’s strongest economies – likely to soon be the world’s largest. Not only has our partnership grown trade and investment between Africa and China, but we’ve also worked together over the years on various initiatives to facilitate infrastructure investment and industrial development on the continent.
Now, it seems, the Standard Bank-ICBC partnership has only grown more powerful and effective: according to Brand Finance, ICBC has become the world’s most valuable banking brand, while Standard Bank is now the most valuable bank in South Africa.
The world’s top 10 most valuable banks according to the Brand Finance Banking 500 2017:
1. ICBC
2. Wells Fargo
3. China Construction Bank
4. Chase
5. Bank of China
6. Bank of America
7. Agricultural Bank of China
8. Citi
9. HSBC
10. Santander
South Africa’s most valuable banks according to the Brand Finance Banking 500 2017:
1. Standard Bank
2. Absa
3. FNB
4. Investec
5. Nedbank
6. Capitec
ICBC, which also lists as Brand Finance’s Most Powerful Banking Brand, can thank its current first-place position on a number of attributes that are currently common to Chinese banks: scale, the vast population and the growing wealth of the country’s citizens. Brand Finance further shares that all China’s sectors are growing rapidly, both organically and through demand for foreign acquisition. This has created opportunities for lenders and financial service providers.
With such extended influence revealed, the partnership between Standard Bank and ICBC can only strengthen and expand, further facilitating Africa’s economic and industrial take-off, and bringing prosperity to all on the continent who seek it.