America’s oldest bank on adopting a ‘startup culture’ as it celebrates its 240th birthday
BNY Mellon is the oldest bank in America but it has a huge perception problem. Its CMO is tackling this by adopting startup cultures and engaging with the whole business.
How can you be both a startup and the oldest bank in America? That’s the question BNY Mellon has been facing up to in the past three years as the financial services firm puts its brand first and foremost and presents itself to the market in an entirely new way.
As well as being the oldest bank in America, BNY Mellon is also the oldest company in New York where it is headquartered. It was even the first company floated on the New York Stock Exchange. And yet, according to its chief marketing and communications officer Natalie Sunderland, it has a perception problem it needs to address. Consumers haven’t “understood” what the brand offers, she says, adding that so much of what it does “could be perceived as complicated”.
