A B-side BY Armin

BMO Harris Bank

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, BMO Harris Bank, is a result of a series of bank mergers after Bank of Montreal Financial group (Harris) acquired Marshall && Ilsley Corporation (M&&I) in July 2011. At that time, M&I Marshall && Ilsley Bank, M&&I Bank National Association (N.A.), and The Harris Bank N.A. merged into Harris N.A. Harris N.A. then changed it’s name to BMO Harris Bank N.A. Conversion of bank branches to the new look began in December 2011 and will continue until late 2012.

Thanks to Stefan Bean for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

ITG Staggers

Established in 1987 in New York and now with 17 offices in 10 countries ITG (Investment Technology Group) is “an independent research broker partnering with global portfolio managers and traders throughout the investment process, from investment decision through to settlement.” If that’s a little unclear — it is to me — they help “clients understand market trends, improve performance, mitigate risk, and navigate increasingly complex markets.” To coincide with its 25th anniversary, ITG has dropped its full name and introduced a new identity and “brandline”, Decoding Signal from Noise, by Landor.

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Opinion BY Armin

Pull Here

Founded in 1989 and 1986 respectively, Nara Bank and Center Bank have provided financial services to the Korean-American community across the United States. This past November they announced a merger to create BBCN Bank, creating the largest financial institution for this community in the country, with 44 full-service branches in California, New York, New Jersey, Washington and Illinois. I couldn’t find out who designed the logo, nor are there any explanations of what it means but, for some reason, I thought it was an interesting logo to point out.

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Opinion BY Armin

Stretchy Line

With roots as far back as 1822, DNB, as it is now known, is Norway’s largest bank and financial services group. Last known as DnB NOR, from the 2003 merger of Den norske Bank (DnB) and Gjensidige NOR, DNB currently has more than 2.3 million retail customers and over 200,000 corporate customers with 200 locations across the country. A first peek at the new logo was released earlier this year in June with this unfortunately dopey picture but the official release of the new identity was earlier this month. The identity has been designed by Oslo-based Anti and Snøhetta Design.

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Opinion BY Armin

Simple Banking, an Oxymoron Realized

Launched this Fall, Simple (formerly BankSimple) is a new alternative to banking with big ass banks that are pain in the ass. If you’ve ever called your bank’s customer support or tried to decode the online statements and wished that instead you were sitting naked in an igloo then you know what I’m talking about. Simple is not a bank, they are an intermediary between you and a bank. As they put it, “We take care of you, our bank partners take care of your money.” They provide a Visa card and you can then track your account and expenses through an amazingly designed and intuitive online and mobile interface. After being in Beta for a few months, Simple has launched to the public with a new name and new identity designed in-house by Ian Collins.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Maybank

Established in 1960, Maybank is Malaysia’s largest financial services group with “over 1,750 branches and offices in 14 countries, employing 40,000 Maybankers and serving over 18 million customers.” Do not adjust your set, the “before” logo is that stretched. Press release here. Bigger view of the icon below (or after the jump).

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A B-Side BY Armin

OneMain Financial

OneMain Financial is the new name for the former CitiFinancial, Citibank’s consumer-finance business as it prepares to sell that division. More story here.

Thanks to Robert Tommy Ward for the tip.

Opinion BY Armin

A Spark in the Wrong Place

Founded in 1849 and originally named The Australian Mutual Provident Society, AMP is a 6,000-employee financial services providing banking, home loans, insurance, retirement, and investment options to over 3.8 million customers in Australia and New Zealand. In March, AMP merged with AXA Asia Pacific Holdings — previously part of French insurance giant AXA — and yesterday introduced a new logo, designed by the Sydney office of Landor to represent the new company.

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Opinion BY Armin

Bank of Melbourne, Redux

We will be closing this week with yet another Australian brand. (I swear I didn’t plan it this way!). The Bank of Melbourne is the second coming of, well, the Bank of Melbourne. Its first iteration came in 1989 when the Bank of Melbourne became the first bank to open in many decades and went up against the “Big Four” banks until 1997 when one of those big players, Westpac, purchased and closed it. This August, Westpac will be re-launching Bank of Melbourne as a subsidiary and, in turn, it will replace all the branches of another Westpac subsidiary, St George, which has a bigger presence and association with Sydney — and if Brand New has taught me anything, it is that Melbourne and Sydney go together like Mentos and Diet Coke, it’s explosive. A new logo for Bank of Melbourne was unveiled earlier this month.

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A B-Side BY Armin

Banco do Nordeste

Servicing the northeast region of Brazil Banco do Nordeste is a government owned, public bank. Its new logo, designed by Sao Paulo-based Top Brands, features a Coqueiro (a coconut palm tree). A bit more on the new logo, in Portuguese, can be found here.

Thanks to Rafael Gondim for the tip.