ME Bank to terminate its sponsorship of Melbourne Storm

ME Bank Chief Executive Jamie McPhee said today that ME Bank has decided to terminate its sponsorship agreement with the Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club.

The announcement follows investigations into Storm's accounts which uncovered a secret bookkeeping system that allowed the club to evade salary cap rules. The NRL has stripped the team of two premierships and fined it $1.6 million.

Press reports suggest that an extra $1.7 million was secretly paid to some players over a five-year period. The Bank says it is "extremely disappointed by the events, which have come to light in the last 24 hours, relating to the Salary Cap breaches at Melbourne Storm".

"As an organisation ME Bank believes in the principles of strong governance, transparency, integrity, and fairness and we seek to ensure that all of our corporate and community partnerships uphold these same values," Mr McPhee said.

ME Bank will work with Melbourne Storm to manage the conclusion of the sponsorship.

The bank says it is very saddened by the events and the effect these have on the many supporters, members and affiliates of the Melbourne Storm family.

ME Bank has sponsored Melbourne Storm since December 2008.

Wakefield added: "This initiative ties in with LANXESS' focus on water as one of the central topics for 2010. LANXESS has been helping to clean and improve the use of water through our products and involvement in social projects, and we will increase these efforts".

The Taronga Conservation Society Australia is a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) and the Zoo and Aquarium Association (previously ARAZPA).

The Taronga Conservation Society Australia contributes to the conservation of biodiversity through a range of activities spanning various programs at Taronga and Western Plains Zoo and attracts 1.5 million visitors per annum.

The zoos care for approximately 4,000 animals from over 350 species through a wide range of strategic conservation research, breeding and conservation projects around the world. In 2009, Taronga Zoo was voted as Sydney’s No 1 attraction by Sydneysiders and interstate visitors in the New South Wales Chamber of Commerce Survey.

"We’re always pleased to partner with companies with a sound commitment to corporate responsibility and to explore opportunities for us to jointly raise public awareness of environmental and wildlife habitat issues", Zoo director Cameron Kerr said.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with sales of EUR 5.06 billion in 2009 and currently around 14,300 employees in twenty-three countries. The company is represented at forty-three production sites worldwide. The core business of LANXESS is the development, manufacturing and marketing of plastics, rubber, intermediates and specialty chemicals.