Circle Design gets the Abbey habit

Abbey National’s finance house business, First National, has appointed Circle Design Consultants to create its new brand identity. The appointment follows Abbey National’s acquisition last month of three businesses from Lombard North Central, part of the NatWest Group.

Lombard Motor Finance, Lombard Tricity Finance and Lombard Business Equipment Leasing were bought for 347m. They will now operate as divisions of First National. “Through these acquisitions, First National will become the UK’s leading consumer finance house. “We have asked Circle Design to develop a new brand identity, which will support this positioning and help us build a much higher profile,” says First National associate director in charge of marketing John Easden.

The new identity will be introduced to the whole First National Group during early 1999.