Globalisation finally roars into Australia

Anyone who watches the telecasts of the Mercantile Mutual Cup cricket matches would have noticed that the shots of the batsmen now have a lion in the background.

And anyone who has watched Merc's latest television ads would have noticed the presence of a lion while anyone who went along to the latest Merc adviser roadshow would have brought home a cuddly lion.

What's a lion got to do with Mercantile Mutual? Not much in the past but it seems an increasing amount in the future. The lion is the symbol of the group's Dutch-based parent company ING, one of the biggest financial services groups in the world.

Like just about every Australian fund manager, Merc has shifted its brand strategy from sole focus on the local Mercantile Mutual name to joint branding with its Dutch parents.

Finally all the talk about globalisation and its impact on the Australian financial services landscape is becoming reality. And it seems some of the industry's icons may be washed away in its wake.

Just take a look at AXA. Does anyone remember National Mutual? It has been less than a year since the National Mutual signs were removed from the skylines of our cities and replaced with the three letters of its majority owners. Consumers are no longer asking: "what is an AXA?" and have probably forgotten what is a National Mutual.

Not only has AXA decided to discard its local brand, it is also looking to rationalise operations in Australia under a common management structure. The move to merge Alliance and AXA funds management operations is just one example of the sort of strategic moves which are likely to become commonplace over the next few years.

For example, ING operates under more than a dozen different brands in Australia and has a number of separate management structures, including ING Bank, Mercantile Mutual and BBL Funds Management.

And Merc and NatMut are certainly not alone in the push for a global brand for the Australian market. Just last month, AMP changed the name of its investment operations to AMP Hendersons in Australia and simply Hendersons overseas.

Rothschild, already a global brand, is sure to step up its co-branding with US-based Putnam in the near future while Perpetual is sure to continue its highly successful co-branding with Fidelity.

Who knows what may happen to the BT name. It was one of the original global names in Australia when it was owned by New York-based Bankers Trust. Now, BT Funds Management is owned by Principal and is still confused with British Telecom.

Riding in tandem with the global brands have been the global funds which have been the hottest item on the new products scene for the past year.

What all this equates to is a vastly different financial services landscape. It is not to bemoan the death of the brands that have shaped our industry but to commemorate their passing. Lest we forget.