A global brand is a valuable intangible asset as it can create demand pull and consumer satisfaction. But is it same for a global financial service brand when it enters a local market? There is no definite answer. Making use of the recent liberalization of the banking sector in India, the author empirically examines the impact of the entry of global brands to the regional firms. To capture the firm level heterogeneity and factoring for the time effect, the author uses the firm fixed and year fixed effect, respectively, in the panel regression. The result shows that for the lesser known firms in the district where the global brands have extended the service for the first time, there is a decrease in credit access. This result is important as it is against the objective of financial inclusion as proposed by the regulators in India.

Brands are the most versatile of all intangible assets today. Brand influences demand and instils confidence among the customers and the employees alike, and reassures the capital market. This is particularly true for the firms like banks and other financial services institutes as they have a direct influence on the financial market. Banks need to serve a variety of customers with diverse needs and preferences, and so building a brand that will relate to all segments, is a challenge. Another aspect of brand building which makes banks different from other service-based brand assessment is the regulation under which it has to operate. In this background, how does the entry of a new global brand in a district influences the credit access for the customers (firms) is empirically discussed. The study adds to the current literature of brand localization and importance of regional heterogeneity.

To analyze the impact of a brand we have to determine the influence over all the stakeholders—employers, customers, suppliers and financiers. But our research is confined to the needs of the commercial borrowers. As for a developing nation, financial inclusion through proper credit allocation is the foremost criterion for a bank to enter the market. The role of branding and marketing as a collusive management activity is well documented in the literature (Hooley and Mann, 1988; and Ennew et al., 1993). Bharadwaj et al. (1993) iterated that due to high tangibility factor and risk association, branding should assist the marketing of financial services (Easingwood and Arnot, 1991).

Brand Management Journal, Global Financial Services, Commercial Borrowers, Developed Economy, Banking Sectors, Global Brands, Financial Markets, Smaller and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, Commercial Banking, Global Financial Brands, Least Square Dummy Variable Approach, Indian Regulatory Authority, Corporate Brands, Corporate Banking Behaviour.