PORQUÊ DO NOME AGEAS ?

Corporate rebrandings are almost always pointless, pompous or both. So

it's a relief that bailed-out Benelux insurer Fortis has provided a crib-
sheet to explain why as of April, it will be called "ageas" .

Apparently, the a and g at the beginning "celebrate our roots" – the firm
began as AG Leven; the e and a in the middle refer to its two key markets,
Europe and Asia; and the "as" at the end stands for "assurance". The
absence of capital letters "heightens the sense of unity within our group"
and shows that "we don't want to force our opinions on anyone". How
very modest. To give Fortis its due, the pared-down, pure insurance firm
that emerged from the £10bn cross-border taxpayer carve-up is a very
different business from the banking conglomerate it had become. BNP
Paribas got the group's Belgian banking interests, while a chunk of the ill-
fated ABN Amro that Fred Goodwin didn't get his hands on was taken
over by the Dutch state. What's left looks more like a boring old insurer,
give or take some toxic legacy assets from the credit crunch era, which its
boss Bart De Smet has been able to return to profit. But wouldn't it have
been refreshing if he'd applied the same back-to-basics approach to
Fortis's name, instead of succumbing to the brand consultants? It could
have been Fortis's most sensible decision in ageas.