The BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study was commissioned by global communications services group WPP and conducted by global researcher Millward Brown Optimor.
The survey combined measures of brand equity with interviews with over two million consumers globally.
CBA was the fifth-placed most valuable regional bank brand in the survey, up from seventh place in 2013.
“The Commonwealth Bank of Australia made the biggest climb in the Regional Bank Top 10, up 18 per cent to $21 billion,” said the report.
ANZ was the only other Australian bank to feature in the 2014 regional top 10, with a brand value of $19 billion.
The most valuable regional bank was Wells Fargo, at $54 billion, maintaining its number one ranking from 2013.
Setting aside regional banks, the overall most valuable bank brand was HSBC at $27 billion – followed by Citi at $17 billion and JP Morgan at $12 billion.
“Regional banks do score ahead of their global counterparts on trust and also score better for meaningful differentiation. However, this is often a reflection of the more favourable ratings in their home markets, and on both scores they still have work to do to recover to pre-recession levels,” said the report.
“Tracking of trustworthiness and recommendation for financial brands shows that while regional banks indexed 104, against an average brand score of 100, this was down from 111 in 2008. Global banks fare even worse, scoring 92 in 2014, compared to 101 in 2008 and 94 in 2013,” it said.
Millward Brown Optimor managing director Nick Cooper said global banks still have work to do when it comes to improving their trust scores.
“Like many major players in categories that are not yet truly global, they find it hard to compete on trust with more locally-based operators,” said Mr Cooper.
“Nevertheless, some progress is being made and the improvements in the global economy have created a more positive climate that could allow bold brands to take big strides in this regard and form a tighter, closer bond with communities around the world,” he said.
