Royal Bank gets a makeover

Royal Bank of Canada is giving itself a corporate facelift to try to forge a common identity for its far-flung operations, particularly new businesses it is building through acquisitions in the United States.

Canada's biggest bank said yesterday that it has redesigned its lion's-head "Leo" logo and will henceforth be selling its services under the new "master corporate brand name" of RBC Financial Group. However, at least for now, the company's name for legal and regulatory purposes will remain Royal Bank of Canada.

RBC will also be adopted as a prefix for each of the bank's five main business units in Canada and, in the United States, for each of its operating companies.

"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," Gordon Nixon, the bank's new chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"Our hope is that with the updated logo, 'Leo' will soon become as recognized around the world as it has been in Canada."

Under the new nomenclature, consumer banking operations in Canada will be known as RBC Royal Bank, while those in the United States, where the bank bought Centura Banks of Rocky Mount, N.C., earlier this year, the brand name will be RBC Centura.

Meanwhile, the bank's investment and corporate banking unit, already known as RBC Dominion Securities, will see its name change to RBC Capital Markets.

As for the bank's revamped "Leo" logo, the lion now faces right instead of left, has lost his crown but gained the initials RBC and is incorporated inside a stylized shield, whose blue hue is considerably lighter in shade than the one the bank has traditionally used.

The bank is launching a national advertising campaign in Canada starting today to tout the changes. "It's going to be mainly print, but I believe some TV will follow later in the year," spokesman David Moorcroft said.

Mr. Moorcroft would not reveal how much the bank will spend on the campaign, but said that while there will be "some new money," most will come from its existing advertising budget.

In the United States, the budget will be determined by each of the operating units, he said.

"Establishing a brand in the U.S. is one of the biggest priorities because of the acquisitions we've done there and the different names they had," Mr. Moorcroft said, adding that the bank will pick its spots carefully for value.