A little bank in central Massachusetts has forced the hand of Canada's second-largest bank, Toronto-Dominion Bank, into unifying its entire U.S. branding strategy. Last year, Toronto-Dominion acquired Commerce Bancorp, a Cherry Hill, N.J.-based bank with branches from New York to Washington, with a beachhead in South Florida. With the acquisition, TD's U.S. moniker, TD Banknorth, began to seem inappropriate, and the firm announced a rebranding around the Commerce name.
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The announcement, however, of the TD Commerce name stirred up a lawsuit from Worcester, Mass.-based Commerce Bank & Trust, which operates a dozen branches in the central part of the state. The smaller bank won an injunction against Toronto-Dominion preventing it from using the new name in Massachusetts. Result: The Canadian bank will brand its U.S. branches TD Bank starting with Commerce locations in 2008, and moving to the New England branches in 2009.
The smaller bank has forced TD to do what it should have done when it acquired Banknorth three years ago: unify its branding around TD and get rid of the special American name. After all, when Citigroup Inc. enters foreign markets, it retains the Citi name. Visit Argentina, and you'll see the same familiar logo as in New York. Toronto-Dominion lacks a brand name as familiar as Citigroup, but it's hard to imagine Americans refusing to bank with an institution from north of the border. - Matthew Wurtzel
See story from The Boston Globe
See Dealscape: Little Mass. bank challenges TD in court
