Lotus logo? Well, the boss loves it

In the past 18 months, ANZ has suffered through the disasters of Opes Prime and Tricom, reserved $367 million to cover bad debts, reported the biggest on-balance sheet credit exposure of any local bank, agreed to enforceable undertakings with the corporate plod over several governance issues, axed more than 1000 jobs in this country alone, expanded its Bangalore "off-shoring of jobs" program, and looked on as some of its best and brightest talent headed for the lifeboats.

Little wonder then, that ANZ has called on the marketing and branding experts at M&C Saatchi to try to advertise its way out of a reputational abyss.

While ANZ's Melbourne management team has been busy doing the dirty work in recent weeks - telling another 248 staff they no longer have a job - chief executive Mike Smith has been having a tough old time of it himself, at his chateau in the south of France.

Don't assume the chief executive has been having a holiday in sunny France while mortgage staff in Australia get the chop.

Between samplings of the fruits of his winery, Smith has been busy watching ANZ's new advertising campaign, via teleconference link with the team at M&C Saatchi here in Melbourne, and has apparently give the new campaign his approval.

The bank has a new logo, multimillion-dollar advertising campaign and brand relaunch ready to begin in October, once ANZ has secured the international rights to Trade Mark No. 1276446.

According to legal documents, that trademark is "a disc, indented, and two semicircles, forming a disc head". In reality, the M&C Saatchi-designed logo is meant to be a "three-petalled lotus" that represents the "trinity" of Australia, New Zealand and Asia, which are ANZ's core markets.

The logo has been tested by ANZ Panin Bank in Indonesia since May, under the watchful eye of Alex Thursby, ANZ's Asia boss.

Work on the new logo began in October, about the same time that the One ANZ program was organising the hit list for its job cuts.

According to a briefing paper doing the rounds within ANZ last year, the bank's brand did not resonate with women.

Even the corporate colour of blue was considered "too male" by some respondents to a survey, thus the logic behind the bank's high-profile sponsorship forays into netball and the Australian Open tennis, and a flower for a logo.

Unfortunately for ANZ, and for the team at M&C Saatchi, senior management is split over the advertising campaign - while Smith is said to "love it", other managers have expressed concerns directly to M&C Saatchi.

A tad on the slow side

OF COURSE, it takes more than a logo to change a culture.

In March, ANZ agreed to an enforceable undertaking with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission over its actions amid the collapse of Opes Prime.

Last year, ASIC reviewed the role and involvement of ANZ Custodian Services in the securities lending business.

In the wake of Opes Prime's collapse, ANZ inherited substantial shareholdings in several smaller listed companies, but was on the slow side when it came to disclosing the size of some of those holdings to the Australian Securities Exchange.

ASIC highlighted eight major concerns in the 38-page enforceable undertaking signed by the bank.

The final three of those concerns were "ANZ's prohibited acquisitions and substantial holding notifications", the bank's "significant breach reporting" and its "compliance culture".

The agreement notes that any further breaches must be brought to the attention of the ANZ board and ASIC.

Full Disclosure assumes, then, that ANZ's board and ASIC have been considering substantial shareholder notices lodged this month by the bank for listed Luminus Systems and Blue Energy.

On July 8 last year, ANZ informed the ASX it held 68.47 per cent of the shares in Luminus.

On March 24 this year, following a rights issue, that relevant interest fell 34.24 per cent. ANZ did not notify the ASX until early last week.

On July 8 last year, ANZ also notified the ASX it owned 25.56 per cent of Blue Energy.

Since then, there have been several share placements that have substantially increased the number of shares on issue, and ANZ's interest has fallen to 20.07 per cent.

The bank finally informed the market about that on July 11, just 10 days ago.

Full Disclosure notes Section 671B of the Corporations Act, which requires entities to report when there is a movement of 1 per cent or more in their holding of a listed company.

Let us see just how enforceable ANZ's undertaking is.

War? What war?

THE award for "worst-timed business seminar of the year"' goes to . . . the Australia China Business Council.

On Thursday, it's running a full-day program titled "Bilateral co-operation in resources and infrastructure in WA" at the Grand Hyatt, Beijing.

You can be assured no one from Rio Tinto is speaking at the event, and iron ore negotiations will be a no-go subject.

Speakers include Australia's ambassador to China, Geoff Raby, and WA Premier Colin Barnett.

In the immortal words of Basil Fawlty, gentlemen, "Don't mention the war".