Last modified: 2007-08-18 by antónio martins
Keywords: espírito santo | bes | banco internacional de crédito | bic | montepio geral | pelican | m | totta |
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In this
page there is a listing of the buisiness operated and owned by
the Espírito Santo finantial group, which is based in Portugal
(the core company is the family-operated Banco Espírito
Santo) but has “interests” also in France,
Switzerland, Angola, Cayman Islands, Spain, United States, Macao, Panama,
Brazil and Luxembourg, At least in Portugal, they use as flags the logo of
each outfit in gold on a (very) dark green background.
António Martins, 03 Jul 2005
Montepio Geral is a portuguese bank (website at www.montepiogeral.pt/) whose flag is a very good example in what concerns corporate vexillology.
It all begins in a superb logo. Rooted in the christian tradition, the logo is a stylization of the common image of the pelican feeding its offspring from its own chest, present, for instance, in the flag of Louisiana, USA. But it’s more than that, for the wings form a wavy "M", the main initial of the bank.
The origins of this christian logo for a bank, of all possible corporations, lie in the origins of the bank itself. Montepio Geral’s history starts in 1840 when an institution called Montepio dos Funcionários Públicos began its activity, changing to the current designation 4 years later. This was not a financial institution: it was a cooperative form of social security for public servants, that provided financial assistance to its associates in case of accident, desease, old age, etc. Still in 1844 this institution created the Caixa Económica de Lisboa to manage more efficiently the money deposited by the associates, thus creating a bancary institution and the foundations of what Montepio Geral is today. (More info at www.montepiogeral.pt/v10/PT/jsp/montepio/historia.jsp, in portuguese)
And hence the flag, which is deep blue with the logo in white in the center and nothing else. I seem to recall that I once saw a variation of this flag in white with the logo in blue (lighter than the field of the official flag), but I’m not sure.
Jorge Candeias, 09 Dec 2003
Flag of Banco Totta, a private banking company based in Lisbon,
Portugal. Formerly Banco Totta e Açores, it was reprivatised in
the 1990ies and had its corporate image modified last in 1999. The flag is
one of the elements of it, with white lettering bold on red and dark blue.
It is flown along with the national flag on Sundays
in the bank’s HQ and offices, though usually not in every branch.
António Martins, 17 Feb 2004
Anything below this line was not added by the editor of this page.