The Financial Conduct Authority spent more than £66,400 to freshen up its logo, according to Freedom of Information figures.
High-end advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi was paid a total of £57,600 to audit and design the new logo.
The financial watchdog spent an extra £8,810 on designing the templates for the new brand and trademarking the logo.
The FCA is largely paid for through levies from the financial services industry.
A spokesman from the FCA said the amount of money spent on the brand refresh aimed to provide value for money.
Large organisations think that they need other large firms to undertake work, but they don’t. Dan FarrowThe new design comes ahead of the FCA's first national consumer advertising campaign on payment protection insurance (PPI) later this year.
The FCA spokesman said the regulator wanted to make the brand "accessible, open and transparent so that all our audiences understand our role".
The existing FCA logo will be phased out over the next year as the FCA updates systems and templates as part of its move to new offices in Stratford.
The FCA highlighted that it will not change the signs in its current building or printed materials such as letterheads or business cards until they run out or it changes address.
Dan Farrow, director of advice firm SBN Wealth Management, said: “Large organisations think that they need other large firms to undertake work, but they don’t.”
If the regulator proved the need to outsource for its brand refresh, he said the regulator could have found cheaper ways of doing it, pointing to online communities of brand design professionals who will to undertake the work for a few hundred pounds.
“Most of these people work for agencies during the day and moonlight after work, so the output would have been similar,” Mr Farrow said.
katherine.denham@ft.com
