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Portuguese banks

Montepio Geral
Banco Totta

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Montepio Geral

image by Jorge Candeias, 09 Dec 2003

Montepio Geral is a portuguese bank (website at http://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 http://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 cen