Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni is not the only one hiding from press cameras. While SA's rate-setter-in-chief sparked concern this week by banning news photographers from bank events, he joins a growing trend.

Seventy-five of the FTSE 100's top UK companies are already clients of a photo agency such as Middlesex-based Newscast, which shoots, vets and distributes images to the media.

It is understood the Bank may in future follow suit, and issue its own pictures of the governor at work.

This approach allows companies to avoid pesky photocalls.

"It could well be vanity, but it stems from a need organisations feel to control the photos that are distributed," says a London photographer. "A lot of people find the behaviour of photographers at these events a nuisance. Also, you have no control over what they put out — one photograph of him wiping his brow when the economy is not good and it becomes a statement."

By contrast, guaranteed control over photos is an attraction.

"There is no way we would put up a picture that a client says "No way" to, Scott Draper, head of client services at Newscast, which has SABMiller as a customer, said yesterday.

Corporate bosses may be falling over themselves to limit the scope for embarrassment, but Mboweni's decision is unusual among central bankers. The Bank of England does not have a pet photographer. Nor does the US Federal Reserve.

With the screws tightening on many companies, particularly in the financial services arena, they are paying more attention to their image than ever before.

"Every company is saying "We're in financial trouble, how can you make us look like champions?", Draper said.

Still, Mboweni has always been fussy about pictures. His latest decision is just one further step in a direction that puts him at odds with other central banks. As a spokesperson for the European Central Bank put it yesterday: "Apart from politeness rules, there is no policy."

Business Day