Start Community Bank will change its name to New Haven Bank effective August 26.
Ownership, management and governance of the bank, headquartered at 299 Whalley Ave., will remain unchanged.
The Elm City-based institution opened in 2004 to provide financial services to underserved consumers and businesses in greater New Haven — underserved, that is, by larger and no-longer-local financial institutions that couldn’t be bothered with small-business accounts or retail consumers with marginal credit histories.
In 2004 Start Bank’s parent company, the First City Fund Corp. (FCFC), was created in the wake of the conversion of New Haven Savings Bank to public ownership. Incorporating the former Tolland Bank and the Savings Bank of Manchester, NHSB’s successor institution became NewAlliance Bank.
In 2011 NewAlliance Bank was merged into First Niagara Bank, which itself was acquired by KeyBank in 2016.
Start Bank was designed as part of a new and different banking model — the community-development bank — that was created to invest capital in the community and to serve “as a catalyst for economic and social improvement” in its hometown.
Under the new name, the bank pledges to “maintain its promise to our community to be supportive of the neighborhoods and community organizations that work for the benefit of our populations at risk.”
The new name change is also intended to highlight the fact that Start/New Haven Bank is today the Elm City’s only locally owned and -headquartered financial-services institution.
New name, same mission
More than anything else, the name change reflects “a doubling down on our mission,” explained Executive Vice President John DeStefano Jr., who was mayor when New Haven Savings Bank disappeared 15 years ago.
DeStefano notes that Start Bank has been profitable for four years now, and its asset base has grown to more than $140 million. There remains but one location, at 299 Whalley Ave., but DeStefano said a second location is likely to open in 2020.
Those are positive changes, but the mission of the institution remains the same.
“When we launched Start Bank it had more of a retail-banking focus, and we still do that,” DeStefano said. “But what we’re becoming more than anything is a small-business and commercial real-estate bank.
“When we chose [the name] Start [in 2004], it seemed to make sense to us,” DeStefano explained. “But when you look at what we’ve been doing, particularly the last five years, we’re the New Haven bank.”
In conjunction with the name change the bank will also launch a new website later this month. The bank’s current URL, startbank.com, will link to the new page at newhavenbank.com (which is not yet live).
