According to the latest issue of the annual Brand Finance Europe 500 ratings of European institutions, Russian state-operated lender Sber (formerly Sberbank) was rated the strongest brand among European financial institutions.

Based out of London, the consultancy Brand Finance examines 5,000 of the biggest names, publishing over 100 reports, ranking firms across all sectors and countries. The consultancy’s annual Europe 500 2023 rankings feature reviews of the world’s top 500 most valuable and strongest European brands.

The review measures the strength of brands by examining marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance, to determine how effectively a company invests, develops brand awareness, takes care of its reputation, and established customer loyalty, as well as how well it operates its business overall.

Sber came in fourth, behind HSBC, Santander and Barclays, as the fourth most valuable bank in Europe, and it cracked the list of the top 40 banks by Brand Value Ranking, coming in at 37th.

Sber was also named the seventh strongest European brand, coming in with a Brand Strength Index score of 88.2/100, beating out such brands as Michelin, Rolex, and Lamborghini.

In a statement, Sber’s press office said, “The Brand Finance report shows that despite the difficult conditions in foreign markets, the Russian bank demonstrates strong financial results, keeps developing innovative products and world-class services, maintains the trust of more than 110 million private and corporate clients, remaining among the top most valuable and powerful European brands.”