16 MAY 1998, Page 26

The Pru lays an egg

I GRAVELY fear that the Prudential has been overrun by logo merchants. These plagues of business life must have crept in when the Pm hit on the idea of starting its own bank. What should it be called? Ask a logo merchant an expensive question and you get a matching answer. Among the names now floating round the Pru's sober cloisters are Egg, Oxygen and 360 Degrees. Banking will have seen nothing like it since the Midland chose to give its bank accounts the names of Orchard, Vector and Meridi- an. They have since been renamed Mid- land, which seems to work better. Why the Pm should want to run away from its own recognised and trusted name, I cannot imagine. I can only advise the board to send for Logokil.