The Swiss financial services giant Credit Suisse today launched its new brand and logo worldwide.

The firm says that its global brand launch and new logo reflect a new strategic direction at Credit Suisse, which began operating as an integrated global bank on January 1. Credit Suisse is combining its investment banking, private banking and asset management businesses to bring together all the know-how and experience in the bank to provide its clients with a more flexible approach to their needs, new perspectives and better access to the full range of financial products, services and innovative solutions offered by Credit Suisse worldwide.

Credit Suisse is underpinning its integrated structure with the global launch of a single brand with a new, uniform logo. To celebrate the new brand, Credit Suisse buildings in Hong Kong, London, New York, Singapore and Zurich will be illuminated for one week starting today.

“The new brand reflects a bank that combines the dynamism and innovative strength of a leading global institution in the fields of investment banking, private banking and asset management with the stability, discretion and experience of a Swiss bank with a long history in the banking business,” it says. “The stylized, sail-like symbol – which is a reference to the clipper-ship logo of the former First Boston company – represents the tradition of investment banking while, at the same time, conveying the notion of pioneering and navigation.”

Oswald Grübel, CEO of Credit Suisse, said, “Our new brand is an expression of our international focus, our heritage and our objectives. The implementation of a single brand name underscores the fact that we are making our bank’s entire expertise available to our clients globally via a single source and that we have a strong and unified presence in the market.”

Today also marks the beginning of Credit Suisse’s global advertising campaign, which will complement the launch of the new Credit Suisse brand. Using the tagline “thinking new perspectives”, the advertising campaign centers on Credit Suisse’s tradition of innovation in meeting the needs of its clients.