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The appointment marks the consolidation of all Barclays' above-the-line business into BBH, which also handles Barclays subsidiary Woolwich.

Barclays said it has given the Barclaycard work to BBH because it wants to create a unified voice for the banking group and build on the strengths of the brand through a fresh approach.

It is not yet clear whether this means that its credit card advertising will adopt the 'Fluent in Finance' strapline.

The company took an earlier step toward aligning the brands more closely when Barclays took over the £19m-a-year sponsorship of the English Premier League from Barclaycard earlier this month (Marketing, October 3), reuniting the bank with football's most prestigious league after ten years.

Barclaycard, which is the UK's leading credit card, has only spent about £400,000 in the past six months through BMP. Its last television advertising through BMP launched in October and focused on value for money for the first time, rather than on the brand itself.

It is thought that BBH will be responsible for creating advertising closer in theme to Barclays' advertising.

BMP DDB originally won the account from Collett Dickenson Pearce in May 1990, scrapping TV advertising frontman Alan Whicker first for Rowan Atkinson as an MI6 agent, and then Angus Deayton.

As a precursor to the creative appointment, Barclaycard moved its media account out of OMD UK and into Starcom Motive earlier this year. Barclaycard's relationship with below-the-line agency WWAV Rapp Collins remains unaffected.

Recent speculation has suggested that Samuel L Jackson, the face of Barclays' 'Fluent in Finance' TV advertising, is to be dropped.

However, a spokesman for the bank stressed that the US film star is to appear in two ads next year and that no decision has been made to drop him.