Banks Name Game a Coincidence ? Sort of
by August 16, 2004 12:00 am 79 views
We were a little perplexed when we saw the Page 1 story about the opening of The Signature Bank in the August 2 issue of the Springfield Business Journal. Gary Head, King Gladden and a group of investors have recently settled on the name Signature Bank of Arkansas for their new venture.
The article said The Signature Bank is the result of a nine-month merger effort between The Bank and Signature Bank, both of Springfield. A call to Head’s group proved what we suspected — it’s a coincidence, sort of.
A spokesman for the group confirmed there is no business relationship between the two but that the officers from the institution and the startup venture do know one another.
Gladden said when he heard the name the focus group came up with for the new venture in Arkansas, he had to make a phone call and check with David Kunze, president of Springfield’s Signature. He said he’s good friends with Kunze, but that there’s no overlap in their businesses.
A search of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s database showed only eight different permutations of the Signature name in locations from Bad Axe, Minn., to Saint Petersburg, Fla.
Leave it to the ninth to be only two hours away from one in Springfield.