Santander's Mackay believes finance sector will return
David Mackay, director for north division of Santander UK, who was part of the executive team behind the rebrand of Abbey and Bradford & Bingley, has predicted that the sector will bounce back.
Speaking from the annual Santander convention where it was announced that the company had boosted profits by 30%, Mackay told The Drum that while the change of perception of the financial sector was ‘happening slowly’ he was ‘confident that financial brands will return to prominence’.
Mackay also spoke directly about the Santander brand and explained that retaining customer confidence was the key factor in building brand perception over the five years since the company entered the UK and especially during the recent consolidation period.
The acquisition followed the acquisition of Bradford & Bingley which, alongside building society Abbey, was integrated into the Santander brand at the beginning of this year.
Mackay said, that to retain confidence during the economic crisis and resulting business moves it was vital that the brand conveyed ‘stability’.
“The values of the Bradford & Bingley brand had arguably diminished significantly during the volatility,” Mackay explained.
“In the economic turmoil…what we most wanted to retain was to ensure that we had customer’s confidence in Santander and the strength, stability and safety of the bank. The main issue there was that the bank has, pretty much, been doing the same thing for the last 150 years.”
He added that the strength of Satander was that it was ‘very different’ and that the results reflected the brand to be ‘risk averse’ in comparison to other financial brands.
“If you look at the risk the banks were taking, they were funding short-term assets, there was short term liquidity – there’s a big liquidity risk in the market. Santander wasn’t doing that and to some degree sacrificed short-term profits in the past years to ensure that stability.”
Earlier this week, Tracy Britton, group head of marketing at rival financial company HSBC, highlighted the relevance of brands and their need for differentiation and honesty in a changing market.
David Mackay will give a lecture on the consolidation process of Bradford & Bingley, Abbey and Santander at Napier University on Monday Evening at the Lindsay Stewart Lecture Theatre, Craiglockhart Campus.