| |
Royal Bank of Canada Updates Brand Name and Logo
The face of Canada's largest financial institution takes
on a new look for the global stage
TORONTO, August 20, 2001 - Royal Bank of
Canada (RBC) today unveiled an updated brand name and logo
that will represent the company around the world. The move
symbolizes the evolution that the organization has undergone
in recent years, expanding beyond its Canadian base into the
United States and other international markets. Effective immediately,
the new master corporate brand name for the organization will
be RBC Financial Group, and the letters "RBC" will become
an umbrella under which each of the company's five business
platforms will operate worldwide.
The new brand name and logo are a natural extension
of the existing brand, but will be new to those markets where
the company has not previously had a physical presence.
"One of our key strategies is expansion into the
U.S. and other niche markets around the world," said Gord
Nixon, president and chief executive officer, RBC Financial
Group. "We want to be able to use a common brand name and
logo wherever we operate in order to build awareness of our
total business activities and to leverage our brand's positive
attributes with customers, employees and investors globally.
Our hope is that with the updated logo, 'Leo' will soon become
as recognized around the world as it has been in Canada."
In Canada, where the Royal Bank brand name and
logo are a deep-rooted part of the Canadian corporate landscape,
the brand name change will be effective immediately with all
business platforms adopting the letters "RBC" (RBC Capital
Markets, RBC Global Services, RBC Royal Bank, RBC Insurance,
RBC Investments), but signage across the country will be replaced
in a phased roll-out. Full implementation in Canada is expected
to be completed by 2004.
In the U.S., where the brand name and logo are
not well known, but where a number of acquisitions have recently
been made, the implementation will occur more rapidly. In
the past two years, Royal Bank of Canada has acquired Centura
Banks, Inc. of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Dain Rauscher
Corporation of Minneapolis, Prism Financial Corporation of
Chicago, Prism Builder Finance Group of Houston, Liberty Life
Insurance Company of Greenville, South Carolina, and has agreed
to acquire Tucker Anthony Sutro Corporation of Boston subject
to shareholder and regulatory approval. The new brand names
of RBC Centura, RBC Prism, RBC Builder Finance and RBC Liberty
Insurance, and the new signage will be implemented immediately.
The name RBC Dain Rauscher (which will include Tucker Anthony
Sutro) will become effective November 1, 2001.
Outside North America, former Royal Trust offices
in London, Singapore, Tokyo, Dubai, Sydney, Melbourne and
Perth, including the former Perpetual Fund Services of Australia,
will now fall under the RBC Global Services platform and signs
displaying the new logo will be going up shortly. In addition,
RBC Royal Bank of Canada will be used in the Caribbean and
some other international markets. Towards the end of the year,
corporate and investment banking offices of RBC Dominion Securities
outside of Canada will be renamed RBC Capital Markets (subject
to legal and regulatory clearance), consistent with the firm's
North American brands.
This update is part of an ongoing strategy to
create an integrated and cohesive corporation in the face
of continued growth around the world. "The more we grow, the
more important it is for us to create an integrated presence
in the marketplace," said Nixon. "RBC has evolved over time
and it is essential that our corporate image evolve along
with it in order to reflect market conditions, new product
and service offerings, and customer expectations."
Increasingly, RBC Financial Group is becoming
an international organization, with more than one third of
cash earnings, 12,000 employees, and nearly 2 million clients
outside of Canada.
This is only the fourth evolution of the logo
since 1901 when the lion and crown were first introduced.
In 1962 the logo was simplified and modernized. At this time,
the globe was added to demonstrate RBC's increasing global
presence. The lion and globe design was modified again in
1974 to simplify the image even further. Because of this evolution
over the years, the "Leo" logo has become one of the most
recognized corporate symbols in Canada.
RBC Financial Group is the brand name for Royal
Bank of Canada (TSE, NYSE: RY) and its subsidiaries. Royal
Bank is Canada's largest bank as measured by market capitalization
and assets, and is one of North America's leading diversified
financial services companies. It provides personal and commercial
banking, wealth management services, insurance, corporate
and investment banking, and transaction processing services
on a global basis. The company employs more than 58,000 people
who serve more than 12 million personal, business and public
sector customers in North America and in some 30 countries
around the world. For more information, please visit www.royalbank.com.
Images for print:
Images for broadcast:
CNW satellite feed today at 13:00 - 13:30 (ET)
Co-ordinates: ANIK E2, C-Band, Transponder 1B, Audio 6.2 & 6.8, PEGAD Available on Dome Transmit 1, DPA-18
|
|
