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The headline facts in the BrandZ financial institutions category bear witness to the carnage in the sector over the past year.

Bank of America and Citi have previously slugged it out for top spot, but now they have fallen to 8th and 11th respectively. In their place, the category is headed by China's ICBC, followed by its two compatriots China Construction Bank and Bank of China.

Meanwhile Wachovia, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and UBS have dropped out of the Top 100 altogether.

Scratch beneath the surface, however, and there is an interesting message about the value of brand and the importance of maintaining it. This is highlighted by Millward Brown's decision not to calculate brand momentum for this category, given the capital markets' difficulty in assessing even near-term growth prospects in the industry, and to publish instead “brand value as a percentage of market capitalisation”.

This metric shows that the big rises in the Chinese banks' overall brand values are due more to the strong growth in their businesses – a key element in the overall BrandZ methodology – than to the power of their brands per se. Conversely, the sharp falls in overall brand value for some of the western banks reflects the ravages of the credit crunch on their business rather than any issue with the brand.

“Many of the banks have maintained their brand equity and the loyalty and trust of their customers to a surprising degree,” says Joanna Seddon, Millward Brown Optimor's (MBO) chief executive. “The financial collapse is because of things that were nothing to do with brand – it wasn't the brand that decided to make all those sub-prime loans.

“Brand in general has gone down much less than the business; it is playing an important part in some of these banks, keeping up their value when times are rough.”

Four big fallers in terms of overall brand value – American Express, RBC, Citi and Bank of America – all saw their brand value rise as a percentage of market capitalisation. Amexco and RBC – along with new entrant and fellow Canadian brand TD (Toronto-Dominion) – head the rankings if viewed on this basis, whereas HSBC's fourth place in the category ranking is due more to its enormous presence in China and elsewhere in Asia.

Underlining the strength and growing influence of the Chinese banks is China Merchants Bank, new to the BrandZ Top 100, but able to boast the biggest single rise in brand value of any company covered – 168 per cent. Its heavy focus on customer service sets it apart from other Chinese banks, says Frederica Fok, consultant at MBO, while it has used a big expansion of its credit cards businesses to develop its brand.

Another entrant to the Top 100 is Bradesco, the first from Brazil to make it to the ranking, demonstrating the growing importance of another of the Bric nations – Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Cristiana Pearson, associate director at MBO, highlights Bradesco as “a very special brand in Brazil – they've benefited tremendously from both their financial stability and the country's economic growth in Brazil, where the lower socio-economic groups in particular experienced significant growth. Bradesco has always been very strong among this group, being known as ‘the bank with open doors'”.

The other notable new entrant in this category is Visa, the world's largest payment card network, which could not be valued for the BrandZ ranking before last year's initial public offering. (For more on the development of the Visa brand, see the interview with Antonio Lucio, its chief marketing officer, at www.ft.com/global-brands-2009.)