BBH scoops £30m UBS Euro online bank brief

UBS, Europe’s largest bank, has appointed Bartle Bogle Hegarty to a &£30m pan-European advertising account for a new online banking service.

The agency was appointed earlier this week after a four-way pitch against D’Arcy, BMP DDB and Leo Burnett.

BBH will create a launch campaign for a UBS online investment bank, which could operate under a new brand name.

The bank will offer a range of products and services, including unit trusts and stockbroking.

The online account will operate separately from UBS’s &£25m global advertising brief, which Publicis was appointed to handle last year.

Publicis also handles the company’s &£10m below-the-line business after merging Publicis Finan cial into its mainstream agency operation.

Swiss Bank Corporation and Union Bank of Switzerland merged to form UBS in February 1998. The new company is working to achieve cost savings and build a coherent brand.

Marcel Ospel, chief executive at UBS, said at the time of the merger: “We know we have a branding issue across the group which we are addressing.”

Publicis is understood not to have pitched for new account, which is being handled from UBS headquarters in Zurich.

UBS recently launched an Internet share service, allowing share transactions to be processed on six stock exchanges.