NAUGATUCK — Naugatuck Savings Bank has set Oct. 21 as the date for its official name change to Ion Bank.
The switch to new signage began last month with replacing old exterior signs with temporary Naugatuck Savings Bank signs while the signage areas are prepared, said Craig Porter, the bank’s marketing director. The temporary signs are being replaced with new signs, which will be covered by temporary Naugatuck Savings Bank signs until the bank opens for business on Oct. 21, he said.
“The Naugatuck Savings Bank name is what needs to remain on display until the close of banking on that Saturday the 19th, because we are Naugatuck Savings Bank with the state Banking Commission through Saturday the 19th,” Porter said.
The new signs will carry the bank’s new blue, green and white logo, which spells the new name as “ion.”
The bank’s stationery and interior signage at its headquarters at 87 Church St., and its 19 branches in 13 towns will be changed out after they close for business on Oct. 19, Porter said.
“We’ll have things shipped to the offices ahead of time, and we have staff that has volunteered to help put out the new stationery and signs so on Monday we’ll be Ion,” he said.
The bank has been called Naugatuck Savings Bank since it was founded in 1870.
The name change will also entail renaming its Naugatuck-based parent company Nutmeg Financial Mutual Holding Co. to Ion Financial Mutual Holding Co., and its insurance subsidiary, John M. Sutherland Inc., to Ion Insurance.
The bank will also offers its investment services through Infidex under the private label Ion Investments, and rename its charitable entity Naugatuck Savings Bank Foundation to Ion Foundation, Porter said.
Charles Boulier III, president and CEO of the bank and holding company, has said the change is being made to market its products under one name and prevent brand confusion with Naugatuck Valley Savings and Loan, also based in Naugatuck. It is also an effort to distinguish itself from 16 other competing community banks in 13 towns, he said.
The name “ion” will also work better for online banking than the word “Naugatuck,” Boulier has said.
