SBI Unveils New Identity After Merger With Associate Banks

State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest bank, on Wednesday unveiled a new brand identity. The new identity was designed to position SBI as a technology savvy, modern and progressive bank, ready to meet the financial needs of all Indians, SBI - which recently merged its operations with five associate banks and Bharatiya Mahila Bank - said in a statement. "While the legendary SBI monogram has been the de-facto symbol of State Bank of India, combining it with the abbreviated SBI word mark is pivotal to the new identity. It makes the brand more concise, modern and approachable, infusing new energy, while retaining its core values," the banking behemoth added.

Five associate banks - State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT) - and Bharatiya Mahila Bank became part of SBI on March 31, 2017. With this merger, the first ever large scale consolidation in the Indian banking system as per SBI, the bank said it will join the league of top 50 banks globally in terms of assets.

Commenting on the bank's new monogram, SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya said in the statement, "In recent years, SBI has accelerated its efforts towards developing digital products and services. Also along with the merger, SBI now becomes one of top 50 global banks. Hence, we felt the need to position SBI as a contemporary brand, ready to connect with a diverse audience in a world that is rapidly going digital."

The "instantly new, yet instantly recognizable" monogram has been refined for greater clarity and ease of use, SBI's statement added.

"The iconic SBI Blue has been refreshed, and the family of colours expanded for scale of usage and approachability. The overall visual language has been designed to ensure consistency and recall across all touch-points," it added.

"The challenge was to arrive at a fresh perspective, while retaining the brand's iconic stature. Strategically, it needed to be 'Instantly new, yet instantly recognizable," said SBI chief marketing officer Dinesh Menon, who led the project of change in brand identity.

State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest commercial bank in India in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers and employees. (Also read: SBI hikes minimum balance requirements)

"The new identity symbolises the forward movement of SBI into a modern India, ready to service a new generation of consumers with new services with a renewed vibrancy," Mr Menon of SBI added.

The SBI group has an extensive network, with over 24 thousand branches in India and 199 offices in 37 other countries across the world in all time zones, as of April 01, 2017. It has a network of more than 59,000 group ATMs and caters to a customer base of more than 50 crore, SBI said.