Salomon Smith Barney will be dropping the “Salomon” name beginning next year.
The firm's retail business in the United States will operate as Smith Barney. The goal is to better identify and brand the firm's retail and investment banking businesses, says a spokesperson.
The change was announced May 21 by Citigroup Chairman and CEO Sanford Weill, and via an interoffice memo in mid-May from SSB CEO Michael Carpenter.
According to the employee memo, a majority of high-net-worth clients and prospects interviewed by the firm “clearly recognized the Smith Barney brand over the Citigroup or Salomon Smith Barney brands” for brokerage and money management services.
Smith Barney “will continue to emphasize its close affiliation with Citigroup,” the memo adds.
The firm's global brokerage and banking unit, now called the SSB/Global Relationship Bank, will be recast as the Citigroup Corporate & Investment Bank, except in emerging markets where the Citibank name will be used.
