New logo: Coface

Coface, an abbreviation of Compagnie Française d'Assurance pour le Commerce Extérieur, is a leading capital insurance company, head-quartered in France. Yesterday, January 21, it unveiled a new corporate identity and a new tagline, "for safer trade". The visual identity was developed by W&Cie.

A new symbol has been created from the first two letters in the company name, a C and a truncated O. It expresses both the relationship between Coface and its clients as well as an infinity symbol.
Read more »

New logo: Paraf

Last week, the large Turkish bank Halkbank introduced a new brand for its credit cards, until then branded as "Halkcard". The new brand was developed by Saffron Brand Consultants who were selected in competition with several other major brand consultancies. They developed both the name and visual identity.

Developed "as a tool that’s there when you need it most", the brand's name means "signature" in Turkish. This is reflected in the logo and background patterns, inspired by islamic art.
Read more »

New logo: Leto Bank

Leto Bank (Лето Банк, meaning "Summer Bank") is a new Russian retail bank brand from the major financial group VTB. It launched in October with a name and visual identity developed by The Brand Union in London and Moscow with interior design by Start JudgeGill.

The brand was designed to be warm and to attract consumers that usually do not trust banks. The final O in the name can be used on its own as a sign, and should convey cooperation between the bank and its clients.
Read more »

New logo: Layf Financial Group

Layf, spelled in Russian as Лайф, a cyrillisation of the English word "Life", is a Russian financial holding company that owns eight Russian banks and several other financial assets. In October, it unveiled a new corporate identity, created by Russian agency AIC.

The new logo features an organic and fluid icon made up of circles in different colours. I should reminds us both of cell division and fingerprints. The typeface used is Ebikastuz.
Read more »

New logo: Diamond Bank

Diamond Bank is an international bank based in Nigeria. On Wednesday, November 7, it unveiled a new corporate identity along with plans to open more offices. It is now marketed as "Diamond – Your Bank".

The new logo is essentially a refresh of the old one, the icon is mostly kept intact, but grey tones have been replaced by more optimistic colours.
Read more »

New logo: UBRiR

The Ural Bank for Reconstruction and Development (Уральский банк реконструкции и развития in Russian, abbreviated UBRR) is a Russian bank, founded in 1990 and head quartered in Yekaterinburg. This week, on October 1, it presented a new corporate identity, created by Russian brand agency Mildberry.

The new logo features a ribbon forming the initials UB in Latin letters. It is brighter and friendlier than its predecessor, with a colour scale based on blue, red and the shades in between.
Read more »

New logo: AIG

The insurance group AIG, or American International Group, was one of the companies that gained worldwide attention during the 2008 financial crisis when the Federal Reserve had to step in to ensure its liquidity. After that, the AIG name had been extensively dragged through the mud and some of the restructured AIG properties were rebranded as Chartis. Recently, however, management apparently decided that the AIG name was rehabilitated and have made moves back to that name. Yesterday, October 2, a new AIG logo was unveiled.

The new logo features a lighter shade of blue and a sans serif typeface that is more up to today's standards. It will apparently be rolled out later in the fall as it replaces brands such as Chartis and SunAmerica.
Read more »

New logo: Coinc

Last week, on July 24, the Spanish commercial bank Bankinter launched a new money management portal called Coinc. The new easy-to-use service is tailored to the under 35s and include functions that combine saving with social networks. The brand identity was developed by Saffron Design Consultants.

The name is a combination of the English word coin and oinc, the sound that Spanish pigs make, as pigs are a universal symbol for saving. The symbol for the new service is both a pig snout and a coin being put into a slot.
Read more »

New logo: Portigon

The German business bank WestLB was one of many banks heavily affected by the 2008 financial crisis, and is about to become yet another bank to rebrand in order to move on from its disgraced name.

The new name was developed by Endmark in Cologne, and the visual identity was created by KW43. The symbol should symbolise the bank's stable-yet-dynamic support of its costumers.

The new corporate identity was unveiled on WestLB's annual press conference in March.
Read more »

New logo: PZU

PZU, or Powszechny Zakład Ubezpieczeń, is a major Polish insurance group with a long history, claiming 1803 as its foundation year. Yesterday, May 10, it unveiled a new corporate identity that is said to reflect modernisation within the company. The new logo launches tomorrow, May 12, and will then be gradually introduced in corporate communication and PZU's many branch offices.

The new logo is said to be a return to the historical circular mark, which the company says was introduced in 1952 and used until the 1990s, but it also symbolises "the simplification of procedures, care for the costumer and a modern approach". A framing device to be used in advertising has been created by cutting two brackets from the blue ring.
Read more »

New logo: MoneyGram

MoneyGram, an international money transfering service, has adopted a new corporate identity. Although released over a month ago, details weren't unveiled until this week. The symbol with arrows spinning around an imaginary globe has been simplified. Now there's only one arrow, and the circle has become a sphere. MoneyGram also has a new tagline, "bringing you closer", communicating the convenience of its money transfers.

The new visual identity was developed by Landor Associates in London.
Read more »

New logo: KfW

KfW, a German government-owned development bank, launched a new corporate identity this week, created by MetaDesign in Düsseldorf.

The previous dotted logo with its lowercase letters has been replaced by a simple uppercase wordmark with some stencil characteristics, apparently somewhat inspired by its predecessor. KfW says the new logo conveys "clarity, sovereignty and power".
Read more »

New logo: Banque Internationale à Luxembourg

The breakup of the troubled Belgian-French financial group Dexia has produced another rebrand, after the Belgian operations were renamed Belfius at the beginning of this month. The Luxembourg subsidiary, Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL), followed last Thursday, March 22, as it launched its new independent corporate identity.

BIL traces its history back to 1856. When the Dexia group was formed in 1996, it became the majority shareholder. In the year 2000, the Luxembourg bank added "Dexia" to its name and started phasing out its original name. After the Dexia group's collapse, Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg was spun off a the end of last year.

The new identity was created by the Luxembourg agency Dechmann and is based on "renewal, trust and sustainability". Dechmann took elements from the BIL's past and resurrected the shield motif that BIL had used for decades prior to the Dexia rebrand. They also chose to use strong capital letters and to include the year 1856 to signal the bank's heritage. The purple colour is a mix of Dexia's dark blue and the magenta BIL used before 2000, and was also chosen as it wasn't used by many other banks.
Read more »

New logo: Bank Nizwa

Bank Nizwa is a new Islamic bank in Oman that intends to offer Sharia compliant banking services. Its corporate identity was unveiled this month, on March 11, and is credited to Wolff Olins. The logo depicts a traditional Omani gateway in yellow and purple.
Read more »

New logo: EVO

EVO is a new Spanish bank brand, unveiled on Monday, March 12, by NCG Banco, a Spanish banking group created last year. NCG Banco has its base in north-western Spain, were it is using the name Novagalicia Banco towards consumers, a name that was introduced in October last year. The new brand will be used for activities in the rest of Spain.

The EVO brand is built on smart banking and providing easy service to its consumers, a concept called Banca Inteligente. Visually, the identity relies on black and white, with a simple and solid logo. The symbol is said to include both a B and an I, from the slogan.

The identity was developed by Saffron Brand Consultants' Madrid office.
Read more »

New logo: Belfius

Dexia is a Belgian-French financial institution that got into trouble following the financial crisis. The Belgian banking operations were split off and taken over by the Belgian government. Recently, it announced that it would change its name from Dexia Bank Belgium to Belfius, and a new logo was unveiled on March 1.

The name is a combination of Belgium (Bel-), finance (-fi-) and the English word "us", summarizing the comapny's mission, which is to be a bank with local roots that listens to and learns from its costumers. The name is also easy to pronounce is many European languages. The new logo features an equal sign, to signal that the bank considers its costumers to be its equals.

The new corporate identity is credited to Hoet & Hoet and the bank's communication bureau Boondoggle.
Read more »

New logo: ITG

Investment Technology Group (ITG) is an American financial research broker. Founded in 1987, it celebrated its 25th birthday yesterday, January 23, and took the opportunity to launch a new corporate identity, created by Landor Associates. The company will now always be known as ITG, the full name will no longer be used.

"ITG's new brand identity includes a new logo, look and feel, naming system, messaging and brandline. Driven by stark design, smart copy and staggered headlines and logo, ITG's new brand reflects the firm's cutting-edge technology and unique market perspectives. The new branding was created by Landor Associates, a leading strategic brand consulting and design firm. Of special significance is ITG's new brandline, Decoding Signal from Noise™, which expresses how the firm helps clients manage the deluge of information in modern financial markets, cutting through the clutter to deliver data-driven insights that no one else can match." - Press release

Read more »

New logo: Sallie Mae

Sallie Mae is the leading student loan organization in the United States. Originally created in the early 1970s as the government-sponsored Student Loan Marketing Association, it is now a private company called SLM Corporation. Much of the company's business is managing federally guaranteed student loans, and it faced a major blow last year when legislation was passed to allow the federal government to loan directly to students, bypassing middlemen like Sallie Mae.

On Monday, December 12, Sallie Mae started trading on NASDAQ, and introduced a new corporate identity. The new logo features almost the same typeface as its predecessor, but adds three archs. No rationale to exlain the logo has been provided, but one can easily read something aspirational into it.
Read more »

New logo: Rosinterbank

Rosinterbank (РосинтерБанк in Russian), a Russian commercial bank founded in 1990, adopted a new corporate identity last week, on December 2.

The previous logo featured a cube and Russia's national colours. The rebrand introduces green as the dominant corporate colour, supplemented with grey. As its new symbol, the bank has chosen a wallet. A simple, tangible and somewhat underused symbol of money and banking. A companion that is always with you.
Read more »

New logo: DNB

Today, November 11 (11.11.11), the Norwegian bank DnB NOR shortened its name to DNB and launched a new corporate identity. The DNB name also replaces Postbanken, the former postal savings bank, and Vital, a life and pension insurer, creating one unified bank and insurance brand. DNB is the largest financial concern in Norway, and this is probably the country's most high profile rebrand this year.

DnB NOR announced that they were getting rid of half their name in February. The allied Norwegian agencies Snøhetta Design and Anti were later given the assignment to develop a new visual identity, including the logo and other applications. The logo was first previewed on June 9 and got a harsh reception.

Until now, we've only had a photo of the logo on an angle, with a director standing next to it. DNB have deliberately avoided releasing a "proper" image before the launch.

Read more »