Lloyds’ brands see valuations soar despite more PPI woes
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has seen the value of its brands soar in the last 12 months despite the legacy of its mis-selling of payment protection insurance continuing to hit its bottom line.
The banking group led the way in an improved 12 months for the British financial services sector, which is still recovering from the hit to brand perception the financial crisis of 2008/09 caused.
The total value of British bank brands has grown by 18 per cent to $76bn (£56m) over the past 12 months, according to brand valuation company Brand Finance in its annual rating of brand values in the sector.
Lloyds Banking Group saw the value of the relaunched Lloyds Bank grow to $3.7bn (£2.74bn), a 14 per cent increase on the total registered for Lloyds TSB a year ago.
Lloyds Bank launched in September backed by a £30m marketing campaign following the spin-off of TSB as a separate brand. According to Brand Finance, the TSB brand is valued at $2.35bn (£1.74bn), the ninth most valuable in the UK.
LBG brands Bank of Scotland and Halifax also saw their brand values increase by 35 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.
News of the increase in Lloyds’ brand value comes on the same day as the company announced it is increasing the amount of money it has put aside to compensate customers mis-sold payment protection by another £1.8bn bringing the total to almost £10bn. The company says it had underestimated the number of claimants.
Perception of the LBG brands were hit by the scale of the pay-outs and its central role in the aftermath of financial crisis – it bought HBOS and was then forced to take state aid because of the amount of bad debt taken on.
Elsewhere, HSBC strengthened its position as the UK’s most valuable bank brand. It is now valued at $26.8bn (£19.8bn), up 17.5 per cent.
Brand Finance chief executive David Haigh says there has been a “significant revival” of UK bank brands.
“Bad news in the form of IT breakdowns and residual fines for bad behavior have continued, but looking forward, the outlook is encouraging with increased competition and choice, particularly in retail banking, ” he adds.
Royal Bank of Scotland was the only group to see any significant reversal in the valuation of its brands. RBS, NatWest, Citizens Bank, Charter One and Ulster saw $1.19bn (£722m) wiped off their collective brand value with RBS itself accounting for more than half of the downward revision.
Brand Finance blamed falling revenues and the impact of allegations RBS profited from distressed businesses for the slump.
Valuations are based on a rating of the strength, risk and potential of a brand relative to its competitors and take into account revenue and re-sale value.
