Two merging Boston banks to rebrand under new Beacon name

Yahoo

5 days ago

Berkshire Hills Bancorp and Brookline Bancorp have settled on Beacon as the brand for their merged company. The holding company will be styled Beacon Financial, and its subsidiary as Beacon Bank & Trust.
The Berkshire and Brookline combination, which the companies have advertised as a merger of equals, is set to close in the third quarter. When the two Boston-based institutions announced the $1.1 billion, all-stock deal in December, they indicated they would choose a new name for the consolidated company.
"The Beacon Bank name reflects our desire to be a reliable guide in financial decision-making, helping clients reach their goals with clarity, confidence, and trust," Brookline CEO Paul Perrault said Wednesday in a press release. Perrault will serve as Beacon Financial's CEO.
"Our new name honors the legacy of Berkshire and Brookline while looking toward a bright and ambitious future." Berkshire Hills Chairman David Brunelle, who will chair the merged company, said in the press release. "We look forward to our new company delivering the enhanced capabilities that come from the combined institution's scale and operational strength."
The merged company is expected to begin operations with $24 billion of assets and a footprint stretching from Massachusetts south into New York's lower Hudson Valley. The Beacon name figures to have particular resonance in Boston, where the Beacon Hill neighborhood has been a landmark since colonial days.
Berkshire Chief Communication and Sustainability Officer Gary Levante told American Banker in an email Thursday that the companies considered "multiple" prospective names and reviewed input from stakeholders and focus groups before opting for Beacon.
"We wanted a name that conveyed guidance, strength, and the promise of stability, core principles that the legacy institutions upheld for generations and that are essential to the combined organization," Levante said in the email.
The only two U.S. banks that currently use the "Beacon" moniker are based in San Francisco and Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s website. Both of those institutions have less than $1 billion of assets.
Last month, in a conference call with analysts, Brookline's Perrault said he was hopeful the merger with Berkshire Hills could close as early as September.
Once it's complete, the companies plan to roll out the Beacon brand gradually. Clients will see it initially on statements, in digital banking channels and inside branches. The full transition is expected to occur in the first quarter of 2026, alongside the systems integration.
"The official rollout of the Beacon Bank brand will be in early 2026 as we look to minimize client disruption and align the introduction of the new branding with updates to our signage, website, digital platforms, and client materials," Levante stated. "We also expect to launch a public-facing campaign to introduce Beacon Bank to the broader community as we move closer to the planned systems integration early next year."
While bank merger-of-equals transactions frequently result in new brands — such as Truist Financial, which emerged from the merger of BB&T Corp. and SunTrust Banks — institutions involved in many recent mergers of equals opted to retain an existing brand.
Burke & Herbert survived after Alexandria, Virginia-based Burke & Herbert Financial merged with Summit Financial Group in Moorefield, West Virginia, in May 2024. Similarly, the Orrstown Financial Services and Orrstown Bank names were kept after Harrisburg, Pennsylvania-based Orrstown merged with Codorus Valley Bancorp in York, Pennsylvania, in July 2024.
The $12 billion-asset Berkshire announced second-quarter earnings of $30.4 million on July 24, up 27% year over year. Brookline, with assets of $11.6 billion, reported a quarterly profit of $22 million, up 34% from the second quarter of 2024.