rebrands
Motor finance house Capital Bank has almost completed a large-scale
rebranding effort, and from December 4 2007 will be known as Bank
of Scotland Dealer Finance, reflecting its strong link to parent
bank HBOS.
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Managing director of Bank of Scotland Dealer Finance, George
Grant explained the origin of the name, which he said was chosen to
help both dealers and point-of-sale (PoS) customers.
“Customers will have the confidence that comes from dealing with
Bank of Scotland, and the heritage we have as a bank. Dealers will
see that we are really committed to the dealer sector. It’s a name
that does what it says on the tin,” he said.
Grant said that the rebrand reflects the bank’s decision to stick
in the PoS motor finance arena, which has been abandoned by almost
every other UK bank except for Lloyds TSB, and that Bank of
Scotland is committed to partnering with dealers. Capital Bank, as
it was, paid its dealer partners around £133m per year in
commission from sales of finance and insurance.
Licence change
HBOS previously had four different banking licences across its
divisions, with Capital Bank operating one of them, and Grant said
that from a compliance point of view it made sense to shift all
banking operations over to one sole licence across the board. “This
will also allow us to raise awareness of Bank of Scotland as a
service provider across the dealer industry,” Grant noted, “meaning
we can talk to dealers about the whole range of products available
through the bank – commercial banking, property issues, merchant
services and so on.” The bank’s objective is to move away from
being a “commodity provider” to being a complete strategic partner,
he explained.
“It is business as usual for our dealer partners,” Grant added.
“This [rebrand] is something we have planned for some time, so
project costs are surprisingly low, with little wastage.”
Grant said that it is the company’s aim to “transform the
marketplace”, to take advantage of changes in the UK’s lending
culture, as well as to provide “better service and better value” to
its customers.
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By GlobalData As a sign of its drive to improve staff knowledge of finance
and insurance products at the point of sale, all of Bank of
Scotland Dealer Finance’s phone and field operatives have been
certified through the Finance & Leasing Association’s
Specialist Automotive Finance programme (see Motor Finance Jun
07).
Grant concluded that the strategic review which had led to
the decision to stay with dealers had been a thorough process, and
that Bank of Scotland’s decision to stay in the dealer market was
only reached after long deliberations. “We have taken a big risk,”
he said, “but one that we hope will pay off. We are committed to
the dealer finance industry and our new name reflects
that.”
