After little more than 20 years, Citigroup decided to sell Banamex, a bank that has a lot of history and influence in Mexico. The reason behind this decision, according to Citigroup, is that they want to focus their consumer banking business on global wealth, as well as payments and loans.
The Citibanamex brand is put up for sale along with all branches and customer accounts, along with the Afores and insurance business, in addition to the cultural heritage that includes buildings in the Historic Center, the payroll credit business, cards, of mortgages, auto and SMEs.
Banamex is a bank with which the Mexican people are very familiar. The generation of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents has it as one of the great benchmarks of banks in our country.
Although its future now looks a bit uncertain, its history is worth studying and understanding, including its corporate image, and this is where we are interested in talking about its logo. Five joined frets, forming a star in the center. Is it a flower? A pinwheel? A pre-Hispanic symbol? Shrimp?
Who did it?
Banco Nacional de México began in 1884, when Banco Mercantil Mexicano and Banco Nacional Mexicano merged. At that time, the government relied on the National Bank of Mexico for the issuance of banknotes (the only ones that the government accepted for the payment of taxes), internal and external public debt operations, banking operations related to contracts with the executive , ordinary exchange transactions and collections and payments abroad.
During its first decades, the National Bank of Mexico was identified with its acronym in English letters, as can be seen in this old commercial: VIDEO:
That’s how it was until the 70s, when it had a makeover. The name Banco Nacional de México remained, but now it was accompanied by that “flower”.
The logo was created in 1975 by Walter Landor Associates, a brand consulting firm founded in 1941 by Walter Landor, a pioneer in research, design and consulting methods, with offices in multiple countries, including Mexico. They are the same ones who created the famous Sabritas smiling face logo.
The person responsible for this design was Fernando Mercado del Collado, a graphic and industrial designer with a career spanning more than 50 years, famous for multiple works that have given identity to many national brands, including Bachoco, Industrial Bloquera and Fisomex.
What does the Banamex symbol mean?
It’s not shrimp, it’s not a rosette, and it’s not a pinwheel either. They are letters “B” united, forming a star in the center.
Each of the five “B” represents the five institutions that made up Banamex: Banco Nacional de México, Financiadora de Ventas Banamex, Financiera Banamex, Hipotecaria Banamex and Seguros América.
In the documentary “Grandes de la Identidad”, Fernando Mercado recounts: “Banamex was the first bank to become multiple banks, and they were the five companies that made up multiple banks, so that’s why the five “b”s. Banco Nacional de México was shortened to Banamex.”
That identity, according to Mercado, helped Banamex stand out in an era when credit cards were a technological novelty.
“We made a whole branding system that was harmonious, that was with the identity of the bank, that had the Mexican identity, with colors that were ocher and brown at the time… it was going away from what other banks were doing, almost all of them blue , and achieved the differentiation that it was already the number one bank in Mexico,” says Mercado.
“I devoted myself to making the new adjustments, modifications, lines and visual proportions between the symbol and its envelope, as well as managing the instrumentation of the identity program for all the internal and external elements of operation, promotion, etc. of the institution as well as the development of the Corporate Identity Manual, resulting in the visual identity made known to the public during its launch on January 6, 1975”, explains Mercado.
So now you know what the Banamex logo is and what it means.
