HSBC’s ring-fenced banking arm will be called HSBC UK after extensive brand review
HSBC has announced the name of its new ring-fenced UK banking arm following a comprehensive consultation process and has decided on HSBC UK.
The bank's move to add ‘UK’ to the end its name was the result of a consultation process with retail, private and commercial banking customers, as well as customer-facing staff.
The rebrand of its UK operations precedes the ring-fencing legislation which requires UK banks to split their retail arm into seperate subsidiaries by 2019. The changes come under the Vickers reforms which aim to seperate retail operations from riskier activities such as investment banking.
In the announcement, HSBC said that adding UK to the brand name would “distinguish the ring-fenced bank from the non-ring-fenced bank and would “differentiate” it in a competitive market.
Stuart Gulliver, group chief executive, said that the bank’s ambition “is to be the bank of choice in the UK and as a name, HSBC UK will build on the global connectivity and customer trust of the HSBC brand”.
The new brand will be rolled out across the UK from 1 January 2018, one year before the legislation comes into effect and the ring-fenced operation will be run from Birmingham.
HSBC’s branding and logo, which has been a hallmark across UK high streets for two decades, is not expected to undergo such an ambitious overhaul and looks set to remain.