GMAC LLC is kicking off a rebranding campaign as the lender seeks to create a new image after garnering a bank registration.

The rebranding will further distance GMAC from its 90-year association with struggling auto maker General Motors Corp. (GM). GM is a co-owner along side private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP.

The rebranding will start with GMAC Bank in the hopes that a new incarnation will spur retail deposit growth, a key funding source for GMAC amid the ongoing credit squeeze.

"We are contemplating rebranding at GMAC during 2009," said Toni Simonetti, a GMAC spokeswoman. "Our priority is to position the bank. We eventually aspire to carry the brand over to other product lines to cover the whole company."

GMAC has hired branding consultant Interbrand Corp., and private advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, to work with GMAC's in-house marketing team. Interbrand's clients, as listed on the firm's Web site, include 3M Co. (MMM), the company famous for its sticky yellow notes; energy giant ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM); telecom company AT&T Inc. (T); and auto maker Porsche. In 2005, after SBC Communications agreed to buy AT&T, Interbrand used the AT&T brand name to position the new entity.

The clients of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, also known as BBH, include deodrant maker AXE, airline British Airways (BAIRY) and Johnnie Walker, maker of blended Scotch whisky.

Officials at Interbrand and BBH were unavailable for comment.

A timeline for the rebranding is yet to be determined.

The rebranding comes on the heels of GMAC's bank registration in December. As part of its transition to a bank holding company, GM and Cerberus have to significantly scale back their stakes in the lender.

GMAC, set up in 1919 to provide financing to buyers of GM vehicles, initially was an acronym for General Motors Acceptance Corp. Its name, at the time, underscored its complete and undivided ownership by and loyalty to the auto maker.

In 2006, GM sold a 51% stake in GMAC to a group of investors led by Cerberus for about $14 billion. The sale was intended to separate GMAC, the jewel in GM's crown and a steady profit center, from plunging credit ratings at the auto maker. At the time, as it is now, GM was struggling with high labor costs and slumping sales. The separation was intended to preserve GMAC's high-grade credit ratings so that GMAC could borrow funds at a competitive rate in the credit markets, a critical requirement for a lender. GMAC's mortgage unit, Residential Capital LLC, was also separated from GM, becoming a part of the separated GMAC.

After the Cerberus deal, GMAC dropped the full form of its name, and was known as GMAC LLC. GMAC could make use of the GMAC LLC brand until 2016, according to an agreement struck in 2006.

Aside from GMAC Bank, the other GMAC brands up for rebranding include ResCap (as its mortgage unit is known) and GMAC, which signified the company's auto lending business.

Prohibitive borrowing costs fueled by the funding freeze in credit markets and losses piling up at GMAC and its mortgage unit forced GMAC to drastically shrink its lending operations in the last several months. To survive, GMAC also sought bank registration, which it received on Dec. 24, giving the cash-strapped lender access to federal funds and allowing it to borrow at cheaper rates.

-By Aparajita Saha-Bubna, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2137; aparajita.saha-bubna@dowjones.com

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