The latest The Banker/Brand Finance Banking 500 report released by global brand valuation firm Brand Finance shows that the brand values of Australia’s banks have risen considerably over the past year.

The report reveals ANZ as the most valuable banking brand, on top of having the highest global gain in the Top 50 banking brands. Rising eleven places, from 50 to 39, this is seen as being major movement at the station, particularly with 14 Australian banks named among the most valuable banking brands overall.

In fact, the total of Australia’s banking brand values are up 27.3% compared to 2012, with ANZ leading the Australian banking list (valued at USD$5.8b) ranking ahead of Commonwealth Bank (USD$5.29b), NAB (USD$4.98b) and Westpac (USD$4.1b).

In terms of overseas markets, US leader Wells Fargo (USD$26b) has overtaken UK’s HSBC (USD$22.8b) to become the world’s most valuable banking brand in 2013 while another American bank, Chase (USD$23.4b), has risen from fifth to second, also overhauling HSBC.

As the European banks continue to struggle post the fiscal insecurity of the previous four years, plus the troublesome Eurozone, the Brand Finance league table highlights the issue in its data.

As it stands, only five European banks are in the top 20, led by Spain’s Santander (6), France’s BNP Paribas (9) and Germany’s Deutsche Bank (12) with North American and Far Eastern making up the bulk – Brazil and China also feature well at the top of the list.

On releasing the results, Brand Finance chief executive, David Haigh explains: “This year’s results suggest that globally the banking crisis is nearly over as both brand ratings and values are rising. While UK banks continue to lag the global recovery in both reputation and brand value, Australian banks are increasing their brand value.”

Full results from the report are available here.