Fidelity Bank wears a new look, the fifth time the tier two bank has rebranded since it began operations in 1988 as Fidelity Union Merchant Bank.
It converted into a commercial bank in 1999, following the issuance of a commercial banking licence by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). That same year it changed its name to Fidelity Bank.
It rebranded after it became a universal bank in February 2001, with a licence to offer the entire spectrum of commercial, consumer, corporate, and investment services.
The current enlarged Fidelity Bank is a merger with former FSB International Bank and Manny Bank in December 2005.
Now, it ranks among the top 10 in the industry with a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 22.3 per cent, above 15 per cent regulatory benchmark for tier two banks.
With this CAR, the bank is in good stead to withstand turbulence and meet finance challenges from its pool of customers spread across all the 36 states, including cities and commercial centres.
Difference this time
The difference between the latest rebranding is that it comes with an all encompassing business model with infinite possibilities for all stakeholders.
Behind the new logo lies an internal retooling that promises new customer service experience, impressive returns to stakeholders, and synergies to launch into a tier one bank in the next few years.
Unveiling the new look Fidelity Bank in Lagos, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nnamdi Okonkwo, disclosed that the rebranding focuses on service delivery systems with a reorientation of over 6,300 employees for performance.
He said the new logo (square-shaped, with deep blue colour and light green separated by a white cylindrical line) comes with a tough job for the Fidelity team.
Okonkwo explained that the blue colour captures the rich solid background of the bank which holds dear its conservative past that inspires the future.
Green colour, he added, symbolises fertility, growth, and progress in the future while the white line in the middle of the blue and green colours stands for safety, and purity as a guiding light.
“Our new brand identity therefore signifies the vibrancy and the energy with which we will conquer new frontiers. It speaks of our upward trajectory – the journey through our conservative past to our progressive future,” he said.
Tough task
“But what is in the new look? The new outlook comes with a tough task to meet stakeholders’ expectations and aspirations,” Okonkwo told the audience at the unveiling in Lagos.
“Indeed, it is a tough job to meet all stakeholders’ expectations but no matter how tough the job, you can bank on us to get you ahead.
“At Fidelity, we are committed to do that tough job to meet stakeholders’ expectations.
“Tools for the tough job to deliver stakeholders’ expectations are not in short supply as a team of 40 employees of the bank spent nearly three months in India to learn world class core banking application to support technological transformations the bank is undergoing.
“We are in the final stage of migrating our core banking platform from Finacle version 7 to Finacle version 10. Today, customers can conduct bank-to-bank transfers seamlessly via our mobile platform.
“We are going to Finacle version 10.1. It is amazing what this application can do. Implementation has already started. In another six to eight months, it will be a different ball game.”
With this new technological bent, Fidelity seeks to connect with all stakeholders, including the youth, and the older conservative group.
“There are many reasons why we need to change now. Historically, we are perceived to be a conservative bank. There is nothing wrong in being conservative, any way. After all, that’s how we gained our credibility.
“So, it is good to be conservative but you also need to realise that the world is changing with advance in technology, with globalisation, with change in demographics, you must wake up to the realities of today.
“We have 170 million Nigerians, 43 per cent of them are in the youth population. What this means is that 43 million people will not connect with Fidelity Bank if we continue to do things the wrong way.
“If we don’t appeal to them today, we lose tomorrow.
“What is important to them is not what is important to us, the older people, who are 50 and above. So, we realised that we need to connect with this young people.”
Preserving heritage
Okonkwo stated the bank’s determination to preserve its rich heritage of the past which brought it this far, and to improve on technology and leverage on those platforms to improve service experience.
“Already, we have retuned quite a few of our technological platforms.
“For the conservative, older, less risk-taking group, we will remain the Fidelity you know. We will create tailored services for you.
“For the younger people, we are creating new frontiers of possibilities. That is the reason our organisation must change.
“So, we keep our past; we move on to the future, back to basis; forward to the future.”
According to him, this implies that Fidelity remains the brand that emphasises financial intermediation with its strong balance sheet but with a clear focus on what to do with every deposit mobilised.
“The days of bringing huge deposits and getting promoted are gone forever. If you mobilise a deposit of N100 billion but do not understand what to do with N100 billion to keep a steady profitable balance sheet, you are missing the point.”
