By Dipo Olowookere
The corporate identity of Access Bank Plc may have to change after the conclusion of its merger with Diamond Bank Plc in June 2019, Business Post has learnt.
This hint was dropped by the CEOs of Access Bank and Diamond Bank, Mr Herbert Wigwe and Mr Uzoma Dozie respectively at a forum held in Lagos recently
While addressing customers of the financial institution, Mr Dozie said Access Bank will retain its name after the merger, while Diamond Bank will definitely lose its. However, he disclosed that the new corporate identity of the new enlarged bank will reflect individual identities of the two merging lenders.
Late last year, Diamond Bank, a tier-1 one lender and Access Bank, a tier-2 financial institution, confirmed that they were coming together to become one. This came after both companies had initially denied media reports that they were planning such move.
At the customer forum in Lagos, Mr Dozie, while responding to a question on whether the enlarged bank will have a new name, said, “I believe that the name will be Access Bank, but the identity will be the one that is recognised by both Access Bank and Diamond Bank.
“So, it will be……just as we have come here today to inform you of what we are doing and get your feedback, we are also going to have a customer forum to help us decide what is the best identity that when people see, they will say this is Diamond Bank, this is Access Bank.”
Giving more insight into Mr Dozie’s point, Mr Wigwe said, “Let me just add to that point, if you go to global banks like Barclays Bank and HSBC that have gone through mergers and acquisitions, you can keep an identity, but you can also make sure you reflect the identity of the different institutions and what they do.
“So, the retail will look like what you see in Diamond Bank so you don’t lose your connection; that is how it happens.
“If you look at the corporate logo and how things will come out, you will not see that you’ve not lost anything.
“Same thing for Access Bank customers, because you know we were also at the corporate end. We also have to be mindful of these customers as well.
“So, we have to do something that will sit nice for Access Bank customers and also sit nice for the retail business of Diamond Bank.”
At the moment, Access Bank logo has ‘access’ written in white colour on a blue background strip with three orange colour ‘>’ sign placed at the end of the word (access>>>).
Business Post reports that both shareholders of Diamond Bank and Access Bank have not approved the merger yet as well as the various regulatory agencies.
