Chinwendu Obienyi
Following its successful merger with Diamond Bank, Access Bank yesterday, launched its new brand with 400 branches proudly showcasing the new logo.
The merger has catapulted Access Bank to a Nigerian banking powerhouse with 27,000 staff across 592 branches, spanning three continents, 12 countries and with 29 million customers.
According to the bank’s Executive, Personal Banking, Victor Etuokwu, the new visual identity fuses together the best of Access Bank and Diamond Bank and builds on the layers of meanings that were built into two iconic brands.
His words, “Bringing them together to capture the strength created through the merger meant drawing from the essence of each logo but refreshing them to create a sense of energy and forward momentum. The diamond shape is fused into the three chevrons, which radiate in all directions to create layers around a core.
The retention of the access typeface, colour and font is complemented by the orange logo, which draws from the colour palettes of both banks. The use of the diamond colour palette is further emphasised with the dominance of green in its retail application, ensuring continuity for retail customers, whilst the dominant orange in the corporate application provides the same sense of familiarity to Access Bank’s customers”.
Etuokwu revealed that Access Bank would not be in a haste to close down any branch in the next one year, adding that some of the overlapping branches might be changed to e-centers as events unfold.
Meanwhile the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has approved the listing of 6,617,253,991 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each of Access Bank Plc resulting from the Scheme of Merger with Diamond Bank.
According to a statement from Head, Listings Regulation Department at NSE, Godstime Iwenekhai, the resultant Scheme shares of 6,617,253,991 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each of Access Bank Plc, were listed Monday, 1 April 2019, while the entire 23,160,388,968 ordinary shares of Diamond Bank Plc were delisted from the Daily Official List of The Exchange Monday, April 1, 2019.
“With the listing of the additional 6,617,253,991 ordinary shares arising from the Scheme, the total issued and fully paid up shares of Access Bank Plc has increase from 28,927,971,631 ordinary shares to 35,545,225,622 ordinary shares of 50 Kobo each”, the statement said.