By Business Editor Edmund Tadros From: news.com.au October 23, 2009 4:00PM

DESPITE a thumbs down from news.com.au readers, a marketing expert has defended a bank’s expensive logo change as an attempt to ”humanise” its image.

Almost half of news.com.au readers gave ANZ’s new “blue blob” logo the thumbs down in an on-line poll and in comments.

“Consumers have had their faith in financial institutions shaken, they are no longer seen as safe,” Melbourne Business School marketing expert Jody Evans said.

“So I can understand why ANZ is trying to do something to humanise the bank.”

“This implies a promise to customers… (but) there is a real risk with this sort of rebranding that they make a promise they can’t live up to.”

The new logo will be rolled-out to all 32 countries that ANZ now operates in with an initial $15 million marketing spend.

The three shapes in the new signage reflect ANZ’s three core markets – Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific – while the central human shape represents customers and staff, the bank said.

Ms Evans said the marketing budget is reasonable for a company of its size but it may confuse customers as it seems to contradict the new tag line.

“I can understand consumers not seeing the value,” she said.

“This seems like they are undermining the promise they made that they live in my world.

The bank uses a new symbol – which lacks any defined share and which many readers hated – because it would be more accessible to Asian customers than an acronym, she said.

“ANZ doesn’t have any kind of meaning in the Asian market so it is easier to use a symbol globally than just three letters,” she said.

Almost half “hate” the new logo

At 3.17pm AEDT 1047 readers, or 47 per cent of a total of 2234 voters, said they hated the new logo.

A quarter said they found it confusing and 15 per cent said they were neutral about the new logo.

The remaining 12 per cent said they loved ANZ’s new branding.

Despite this negative feedback, Ms Evans said ANZ’s main goal at the moment would be to build awareness of the new brand.

“It’s really early days…right now the priority is awareness.

“Awareness is high so negative comments are not as important in the short term.”

And her evaluation of the new logo?

“I don’t dislike the new logo, I can understand why with the push into Asia that symbols are incredibly important.”

AAP – RESERVE Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens says it would be a mistake to be “too timid” to raise interest rates in response to a brighter economy.

Speaking at a breakfast function in Perth today, Mr Stevens said the period of greatest weakness in Australia was probably past and the risks of really serious economic weakness had abated.

In that environment, the central bank governor said monetary policy needed to be “recalibrated” to reflect the changing circumstances.

“If we were prepared to cut rates rapidly, to a very low level, in response to a threat but then were too timid to lessen that stimulus in a timely way when the threat had passed, we would have a bias in our monetary policy framework,” Mr Stevens said.

“Experience here and elsewhere counsels against that approach.”

The RBA board took the first step to returning interest rates towards what Mr Stevens described as more normal levels last week, when it lifted the cash rate to 3.25 per cent, from 3 per cent.

The RBA’s actions, along with government stimulus measures and the recovery in China had helped head off the worst effects of the global recession, Mr Stevens said.

“The very low interest rate settings were designed for a weaker economy than we are in fact facing,” Mr Stevens said.

“Plainly, the downside risks to which the board was responding earlier have not materialised.

“This is not a problem. In fact, it is a very desirable situation.”

By Nick Gardner

ANYONE missing just one utility bill or credit card repayment could have a black mark lodged on their credit rating under sweeping proposals to give banks carte blanche to view every aspect of our financial affairs.

Under the suggested changes to the Privacy Act announced yesterday, lenders could dig into accounts with other institutions, relationships with utility companies, when accounts are opened and closed, and, crucially, check the repayment history of all accounts going back two years.

The information would then be used to assess whether people can afford repayments on any new applications for credit.

The logic is that banks will be better able to adhere to new responsible lending requirements due to take effect next year if they can see a new customers’ entire financial situation and how they have handled credit in the past.

But critics said the information could exclude whole swaths of society and make it far more difficult to access credit.

But the new system is likely to operate under a much tighter time-frame – although precisely how late a payment has to be before it is lodged on a credit file has yet to be decided.

Katherine Lane, principal solicitor at the consumer credit legal centre of NSW, said: “Banks will use this information to cherry pick the best customers. The result will be financial exclusion on a mass scale.

“It’s already happening, this will just make it far worse. Banks cannot be trusted with this degree of private information – they will lend more to preferred customers and exclude those in need.”

Russell Evans of credit information agency Veda Advantage, said: “Discussions so far have centred on the payment cycle . That generally means one month – so if you have not paid your bill by the next billing period starts, the suggestions are it will then be lodged as a missed payment but it has yet to be set in stone.”

The Government said the proposals are in the consumers’ best interests because the current system allows only bad information to be logged.

“Australia’s credit reporting system provides only half the picture of an individual’s credit worthiness because it only logs negative information” Senator Joe Ludwig said.

Source: brisbanetimes.com.au

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has likened the world financial crisis to a “cancer” which has spread to the Australian economy.

He also defended the government’s decision to implement a $10.4 billion economic stimulus package ahead of official data to be released next month revealing the strength of the local economy.

Mr Rudd said financial institutions had spread around the risk of “dodgy loans” made in the US.

“When the original mortgage payments couldn’t be made, the cancer didn’t just stay local, it spread across the world to all the other institutions that had been wrapped up in it,” he told Sky News today.

The crisis was now affecting the real Australian economy.

Mr Rudd is resisting calls from the opposition for the release of Treasury advice the government received in developing its stimulus package.

Updates would be included in the mid-year economic forecasts, due for release next month, he said.

But the government could not wait for “final, conclusive proof of economic problems” before taking action, Mr Rudd said.

“Guess what, by then it’s too late, you need to act decisively and early because it takes some time for these stimulus measures to flow through to the economy.”

“The logic of the Liberal Party’s position is this, they would say that you should wait until basically the car starts to sputter through lack of petrol in the tank before you put more petrol in.”

When pressed about what the government was doing to help self-funded retirees weather the financial crisis, Mr Rudd said the government was maintaining the stability of the financial system.

Guaranteeing bank deposits would help them, he said.

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