TD Banknorth Garden will be re-branded by the end of 2008.
“TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank” is the new name TD Banknorth and N.J.-based Commerce Bank agreed upon last week, in place of the previously announced “TD Commerce Bank,” which faced a lawsuit.
With the acquisition of Commerce Bank in March, TD Banknorth now has branches in every New England state except Rhode Island, as well as New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Florida. The bank has 152 branches in Massachusetts and 76 in Connecticut.
By acquiring Commerce, TD had hoped to capitalize on a strongly branded regional bank with a loyal customer base, the bank said. The slogan, “America’s Most Convenient Bank,” was strongly identified with Commerce Bank in the Mid-Atlantic region prior to the bank’s acquisition.
The company said it would announce a new name for TD Banknorth Garden by the end of 2008, with re-branding of the Garden as well as New England-based bank branches to take place in 2009.
Naming rights to the Boston arena, home to the Boston Celtics basketball team and Boston Bruins hockey team, reportedly cost $6 million per year.
Last week, a Banknorth spokeswoman said any name change to TD Banknorth Garden would include the name “Garden” and added that “it’s likely that the TD shield [will] be part of the name as well.”
TD Banknorth was sued by a different Commerce Bank, based in Worcester and the parent company of East-West Mortgage, after it announced in March that it had purchased the New Jersey Commerce Bank and intended to re-brand as TD Commerce Bank.
The case wound up in federal district court in Worcester, which provisionally prevented the company from using the TD Commerce Bank name on signage and marketing materials in certain Massachusetts counties, including Suffolk County, where TD Banknorth Gar-den is located.
Bharat Masrani, president and chief executive officer of TD Bank, N.A., said, “In our view, the well-recognized TD name combined with Commerce Bank clearly distinguished us from other banks with Commerce in their name.”
