A curious letter arrives. It concerns the rebranding of equities research at ABN Amro, the Dutch bank taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland last year. “Excellent progress has been made with the integration over the last few months,” it says.

During which time the banking market has collapsed and the ABN Amro deal now looks like the best news for Barclays, which failed to buy it, for some decades. But into private grief, let us not intrude.

Anyway, as of Monday, the European equities research issued by ABN will be rebranded RBS. The Asia Pacific research will look like RBS, but will keep the green ABN logo.

If you access the stuff through third parties, it will be branded ABN. Meanwhile, stuff on the website will be either RBS or ABN.

Confused? It is, I am reliably told, the fault of the various Asian regulators, all of whom need to give their permission for any changes. Though why the Ulan Bator Financial Services Authority - all right, I made that one up - should care about the colour of the logo on anyone's research is beyond me.

Don't even ask what it all costs. Nothing is ever straightforward, is it?

Just like taking coals to Newcastle

A small software company from Woking is cock-a-hoop after winning a significant contract on the West Coast of America. BIW Technologies is supplying software to the architects and project managers who will build the new headquarters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, the charity that will distribute some of Gates's billions. The company is especially pleased because Gates is not exactly short of software engineers or, for that matter, product. It seems there is no requirement for his foundation to take Microsoft products. Unlike, perhaps, the rest of us.

— Ping! An e-mail arrives from ... well, one of our biggest and best-known hedge funds. It is from a fund manager who is “wondering if you currently have any available journalist positions within The Times group”. Blimey, are things that bad?

— I hear that Disney is to launch on July 17 a social networking aimed at parents. Disney has signed up experts such as Annabel Karmel, who writes on children's food, for the non-branded, advertising-funded ukfamily.co.uk. Members can discuss problems, give advice, and so on. There is no sign anywhere of the Disney brand. The US equivalent has the Mouse featured prominently.

— Just after that shock profit warning from Marks & Spencer, Sir Stuart Rose won Retail Personality of the Year at the Property Week awards. In his speech he said it was a nice change after being called the “Mugabe of Retail”. I thought that was Sir Terry Leahy at Tesco?

— A release from BA, whose Terminal 5 “celebrates 100 days of operation”? T5 “is seeing significant gains in improved punctuality and baggage performance”. Willie Walsh, chief executive, says: “Every day I get e-mails, letters or comments from customers telling me how much they enjoy using the terminal.” Beyond parody ...

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