Abstract
Traditionally the literature show that public brand value estimates (such as the ones published by Interbrand, Brand Finance or Brand Z), in the context of industrial quoted companies, are incorporated in stock prices, implying that brands significantly contributes to the value generation process in a company. No such study was carried out at the level of the banking sector. This could be due to the attribution of a marginal importance of brands, among other intangible assets, in the banking sector, as highlighted by the literature. In more recent years more and more evidences give evidence of the importance of brands in banking sector; it should be noted that: 
 
 - many banks, as a result of the Purchase Price Allocation process - PPA (pursuant to IFRS 3 Business Combinations) consequent to banking aggregations (mergers or acquisitions), have booked in their financial statements (separate or consolidated) brand values;
 
 - reports published by independent parties such as Brand Finance, publishes brand values specifically for the banking sector.
 
 The aim of this article is therefore to assess if the brand contributes to the value generation process in the banking sector. To test our hypothesis we run a regression on a European sample between market capitalization of major banks and their brand value published by independent expert Brand Finance from 2008 to 2017, with a classic value relevance analysis. Our results demonstrate that brand contributes to the value generation process in the banking sector.
Highlights
The literature on the subject of intangibles has unfolded along two main strands: a first one, in the context of management studies, which refers to the development and management of intangibles and a second one, related to accounting and finance studies, which refers to the measurement of intangibles and the effects on company value
The possibility of using brand value estimates provided by independent third parties is directly linked to the value relevance of brand values expressed by Brand Finance
The value relevance hypothesis is tested using the approach provided by Mary Barth et al (1998), performed in 2 steps: 1) first of all analyzing the statistical significance of the relationship between the valuation of brands of different banks in the sample and their respective market capitalizations; 2) since the statistical significance founded at the first step could be due to an endogeneity factor, a 2SLS model (Two-Stage Least Squares) has been used
Summary
The literature on the subject of intangibles has unfolded along two main strands: a first one, in the context of management studies, which refers to the development and management of intangibles and a second one, related to accounting and finance studies, which refers to the measurement of intangibles and the effects on company value. Has focused on measuring and evaluating for the banking sector only the contribution of customer relationships to intangibles, excluding from the analysis the brands. This does not mean that the literature denies the presence of brands, but that the brand in the banking sector does not contribute to generating value. This opinion is closely linked to a traditional view of the retail bank as rooted in the territory and based on two value drivers: on one hand the proximity and availability of "physical" branches in the region and the potential proximity to the customer (bank branches close to clients’ home) and, on the other hand, the ability to manage customer relations. The way of creating value of a traditional bank is closely linked to 1) the achievement of the potential customer with the proximity of the ijbm.ccsenet.org
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