Flagship Bank Name Change Could Be On Horizon
After the acquisition of Worcester’s Flagship Bank by People’s United Bank of Bridgeport, Conn., was completed earlier this year, tongues in the local banking industry began wagging as to whether a name change was in the cards for the local institution.
While no final decision has been made, officials at People’s confirm that a phasing out of the Flagship name could be on the horizon, but not for a while.
System Integration
A natural time period for the change would be when Flagship’s operating systems have all been converted to People’s. That conversion is expected in the second quarter of 2010.
“That’s one of the options we’re considering, but no definite timetable has been set,” Brent DiGiorgio, a People’s spokesman, said recently.
Timothy Crimmins, president of Flagship, as well as the Bank of Western Massachusetts, both of which are owned by People’s, also said “no decision like that has been made.”
Several Central Massachusetts bank executives said a name change would make perfect sense.
For a bank the size of People’s, identical marketing materials, printed materials or anything that might include a company logo are easier to produce, track and manage if they all use the same name and logo.
Bankers said People’s is the name the bank wants to promote in Central Massachusetts, not Flagship. They say they knew the change would come as soon as they saw both banks’ names in advertisements.
Flagship was a subsidiary of People’s for a year before becoming a division, when it started including the line “A division of People’s United Bank” in its marketing materials and logos.
The name change would make sense in another way, as well.
The Flagship Bank building at 120 Front St. in downtown Worcester was home to Peoples Savings Bank of Worcester until it was acquired by Fleet National Bank in 1994.
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