Landor credited by Swiss bank

Global financial institution Union Bank of Switzerland has unveiled a new simplified corporate identity and branding system by Landor Associates.

UBS, one of the world’s top five banks, operates private banking, investment banking, risk management and retail banking. The initials SBG have been scrapped from the old UBS/SBG name.

The decision to remove SBG from the marque came after image research showed customer confusion over “perceived inconsistencies in the bank’s identity”, says a Landor spokesman.

“Our identity must… accurately communicate our positioning and our mission, which is to broaden our coverage of new markets and communicate our key attributes more effectively,” says head of UBS Group Corporate Marketing Edgar Britschgi.

The old logo had evolved over the past 20 years.

Landor drew on the bank’s core values of solid, dependable and high quality financial services, says Peter Farnell-Watson, managing director of the Landor group in Europe.

Landor has also rebranded financial protection and investment management products and services provider The Zurich Group. The new identity and branding structure will be completely phased in by the year 2000.