MercMut has four good reasons to be cheerful
Mercantile Mutual are a bunch of people with reasons to be happy!
Mercantile Mutual are a bunch of people with reasons to be happy!
First of all Merc actually came fourth and not ninth in retail fund manager in-flows, despite what Assirt printed in their original research and we diligently reported. Well done!
The other reason for all the cheer is that last Tuesday a team of runners com-pleted a 1036 kilometre run from Melbourne to Sydney to raise funds for Austra-lasian Spinal Research Trust.
The intrepid souls ran 42km each, the equivalent of a full marathon, every day, in relay format covering the distance in under five days and raising well over $50,000.
And while this is great news for spinal research, the best news was still re-served for the Merc's bean counters in payroll and HR departments.
All the runners, aches and sprains included, were back at their desks the next day.
What is the deal with this CFS thing?
First we hear Australia's leading bank wants to call its funds management busi-ness Commonwealth Financial Services (CFS).
Then First State decide they want to be taken over by Colonial so they can call themselves Colonial First State.
And then last year, a group of financial planners decide to band together and you know what they call themselves - CFS (Consolidated Financial Services).
Hold on fellas. We know Australians love to alter names and titles to a less formal form. How many parents named their children David or Sharon and have them go to school to return home as Davo or Shazza?
How many youngsters went off with the surname of Smith only to return with the ubiquitous 'Y' attached to the end. Useful of course for yelling out loudly dur-ing vigorous sporting encounters a la "Smith-eeeeee!"
But why does the sombre and subtle world of financial services need these abomi-nations?
While not dripping with originality would ComFiSe, ConFinS and ColFiSt have been too hard? True they don't have that certain local style but it gives an air which normally only US Government agencies can muster.
On the other hand CFS - the Colonial version, is Money Management's Fund Manager of the Year, CFS - the Consolidated version, is in the process of floating on the ASX and the last CFS - the Commonwealth variety, is quietly building a high profile funds management team and generously leaving the limelight to the other two.
So where does all this end? I mean, are we going to see NAB subsidiary County Investment Management jump on the crowded bandwagon and change its name to County Financial Services? And how about Citicorp?
At least there won't be any stoushes over who get the website with those three little letters followed by a dot com dot au. It has already been nabbed by a Sydney computer firm.
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