Bank of America chooses WPP arm for Euro push

Bank of America (BoA) is poised to appoint WPP Group-owned branding agency The Brand Union to head a major European marketing push.

The US financial services giant is understood to have met with a number of agencies over a pan-European new product development account before selecting The Brand Union, which rebranded from Enterprise IG in November last year.

It is unclear what the move will mean for Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO, which holds the UK advertising account for BoA-owned MBNA Europe. The division sits in Bank of America Europe Card Services, although MBNA is the business and consumer-facing brand.

Sources suggest BoA is considering scrapping the MBNA brand and The Brand Union could be tasked with handling any new brand identity and communications strategy.

MBNA is Europe’s largest credit card issuer, although much of its business is affinity and affiliate cards for other brands, and was bought by BoA for $35bn (£17.8bn) in 2005. The division spends about £40m a year on direct marketing.

The Brand Union has already worked with BoA on its brand identity before being appointed to the business. It is not known how much the account is worth or what strategy BoA is looking to adopt in Europe.

BoA’s European division is headquartered in London and it also operates in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Spain and Switzerland.

The Brand Union is led by former JWT chief executive Simon Bolton, who joined in 2006 and is now worldwide chief executive.

AMV.BBDO and The Brand Union declined to comment. BoA was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

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