Cornerstone Bank plans name change

Eureka Springs-based Cornerstone Bank wants to shorten its name to CS Bank. The rebranding is awaiting regulatory approval from the state bank department.

The change is to avoid confusion as the bank expands into other markets. Cornerstone will open a new office in Cassville, Mo., later this year under the shortened name. The changes in Arkansas should be completed in early 2021.

“As much as we value the equity of our existing name, another bank operates under that name in Missouri, which limits our ability to move forward with our current name,” Cornerstone Bank CEO Charlie Cross said in a statement. “To avoid potential consumer confusion, the bank’s legal name is changing to CS Bank, a shortened version of our current name.”

Cross said the bank’s two subsidiaries — Cornerstone Home Mortgage and Cornerstone Investment Services — will also shorten their names to CS Home Mortgage and CS Investment Services.

The ownership of the bank, the bank’s board, executive team, employees and locations are remaining unchanged.

Cornerstone has four Carroll County locations in Eureka Springs (2), Holiday Island and Berryville. In 2015, it opened a branch in Huntsville in adjacent Madison County, the first office outside Carroll County in the bank’s history dating back to 1912. A permanent banking center in Harrison (Boone County) opened in 2019.

Cross’ family has owned the bank since 1929 when his great-grandfather, former 3rd District Congressman Claude A. Fuller, bought a controlling interest in what was then called Bank of Eureka Springs.

Cornerstone Bank took its name in 2008. According to the FDIC, the bank’s assets have grown more than 124% during the past five years, from $175.8 million on June 30, 2015, to $394 million on the same date in 2020.