Bank of Butterfield announced a major re-branding move yesterday which will see the 146-year-old institution's name changed to Butterfield Bank.

Officials said the move is intended to consolidate the bank's corporate branding for their entire group of companies.

“In consideration of our recent acquisitions of several banks, along with the current financial markets climate, the bank's management determined that our brand identity should be updated for consistency and clarity across our operations,” said president and CEO Alan Thompson yesterday.

The bank has been known as Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son since 1858, although its origins date back to a merchant trading firm formed in 1758.

Yesterday Mr. Thompson acknowledged the recent, highly profile re-branding of the Bank of Bermuda with HSBC's corporate identity but said the move to Butterfield Bank was not directly related.

That was “just one of the external aspects of our business climate that we're aware of,” he said.

He stressed that the new brand is being implemented to bring consistency to the way the Bank is presented - wherever it has a presence - rather than in response to HSBC.

“While our legal name, The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited, will remain the same, we will adopt the brand name ‘Butterfield Bank' across all jurisdictions in which we do business,” he said.

The Bank's other locations include the UK, Guernsey, the Cayman Islands, Barbados and the Bahamas.

The new brand name will be accompanied by a new version of the Bank's logo. It retains the traditional dragon-like wyvern image (which is based on the Butterfield family crest) and their corporate colours of maroon and grey.

“We have chosen a new look that captures our history and tradition with an updated, forward-looking style,” said Mr. Thompson.

He added that many of the group's businesses are already referred to using ‘Butterfield' as the first part of their name - Butterfield Asset Management and Butterfield Fund Services, for example - which means that the re-branding initiative reinforces the bank's focus on a single brand name.

The new branding will be applied to all the bank's promotional literature, publications, customer bankcards and signage.

“This is a group-wide initiative across all our operations, and we expect it will take some time,” said Mr. Thompson. “Customers can expect to see the changes over the next several months.”