Santander bought the TSB for £2.65 billion only last week, but is already making plans to ditch the 215 year-old brand, according to the FT. The name will be phased out and replaced by Santander UK.
TSB’s reputation as “the bank that likes to say yes” was built with a classic 80s ad campaign by Lowe Howard-Spink, featuring a jingle that is etched on the minds of a generation. Moving with the times, in 1989 TSB introduced a yuppie character, J.J. Hackenbush, who only ever wanted to hear the word “yes”.
The Trustee Savings Bank was founded in 1810 by Reverend Henry Duncan to help ordinary working people to save money. It merged with Lloyds in 1995 to form Lloyds TSB Group and had a relaunch in 2013. The most recent work for TSB was from McCann in 2023 and featured a cuddly pink elephant designed to make the bank more approachable.
Spanish group Santander entered the UK in 2004 with the purchase of former building society Abbey National. It has recently considered exiting the country, so in some ways the purchase of TSB is good news as it signals a commitment to the UK. Santander appointed Publicis UK as its agency a year ago, so it looks like we won’t be seeing any more of McCann’s pink elephant.
