Worcester, Mass.-based savings bank Commerce Bank & Trust Co. has gone to federal court in a bid to stop TD from using a similar-sounding name. TD plans to ditch the regional-sounding TD Banknorth for TD Commerce on its 1,100 combined branches. (TD Banknorth would sound strange in Florida's Palm Beach County.)
The Massachusetts bank, which operates a dozen branches in Worcester and surrounding towns in the central part of the state, has operated since 1955 -- 18 years before Cherry Hill, N.J.-based Commerce opened. Its president, Brian Thompson, told The Associated Press that the bank had no choice but to sue because a name is everything in banking and allowing a rival to use a similar one would confuse customers.
The Boston Globe notes that there is some precedent for Commerce Bank & Trust's suit, and one that involves another international bank giant. In 2004, Citizens National Bank of Evans City, Pa., persuaded a federal judge to stop Royal Bank of Scotland plc's Citizens Financial Group Inc. from using the "Citizens" name on branches in that area following its purchase of Charter One.
The Globe also noted FDIC information that there are 47 U.S. banks using the Commerce name. One of those other Commerce banks is a Kansas City, Mo., institution that predates the aforementioned banks by almost a century and operates 360 branches in five states. So if the Massachusetts bank wins, might the Kansas City firm challenge its right to the brand? - Matthew Wurtzel
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Toronto-Dominion Bank closed its largest U.S. purchase to date by buying Commerce Bancorp Inc. on Monday, and already the Canadian banking giant is facing a lawsuit concerning its post-merger integration plans.
