Lender changes its name to boost group’s brand image


Standard Chartered First Bank renamed itself Standard Chartered Bank on Wednesday, putting a stronger emphasis on the British group’s corporate image.

“Today, SC First Bank becomes Standard Chartered Bank. This marks the start of an exciting new journey for us, as we aim to become Korea’s best international bank,” Richard Hill, chief of the Korean unit of Europe’s third-largest bank, told reporters at a news conference.

“2011 was the year of turbulence for us, and the name change means a new start for us and a new turnaround for our business.”

The name change comes as part of bigger reforms the lender has been pursuing, such as a policy shift on the pay system and the trimming of the organization by encouraging early retirement.

It shed 813 employees who applied for the voluntary redundancy program. Hill’s push to introduce a performance-based pay system caused about half of the bank’s 6,500 workers to go on strike for eight weeks in June ― the country’s longest labor strike in the banking industry.

The Korean unit of the London-based financial group said dropping the “First,” ― “Jeil” in Korean ― is a symbolic integration with its parent group although it doesn’t bring any changes to its services.

The change has been mulled since the bank was created by the British firm’s acquisition of the former Korea First Bank in 2005.

“The reason why we took such a long time to change our name, seven years, is because we were worried about losing our heritage (carried under the word “First.”) Over time the value of keeping the hybrid name grew less strong,” Hill said.

Korea was the only country among the group’s more than 70 countries of operation where a local name was embedded in the official name.

Six percent of the group’s $5.1 billion global pretax profits come from its Korean operations.

By Cynthia J. Kim (cynthiak@heraldcorp.com)