Seven-bank merger in Kansas City area ends experiment in sharing branches

Seven Kansas City area banks that have shared branches since 2007 will become one family in a merger that ends an experiment in consumer behavior.

They are Valley View State Bank, Mission Bank, Industrial State Bank, First Bank of Missouri, Bank of Lee’s Summit, Citizens State Bank in Paola, Kan., and Security Bank of Kansas City.

For nine years, customers of the seven banks have enjoyed access to their accounts through all seven banks, even as the banks remained separate institutions with separate names, separate presidents and separate charters.

Regulators had approved the shared-branch access idea that allowed customers to enjoy one network of 44 branches and 47 ATMs.

A green leaf logo and BancAbility signs held the group together. They showed customers that their accounts were here, regardless of whether the name over the door matched the one on their checkbooks.

“If it’s convenient for them, I think they’ll try it,” one area banker said of the idea when it launched in 2007. “They won’t hesitate if the news is communicated clearly.”

Jim Lewis, president of Security Bank of Kansas City and the group’s parent company, said the BancAbility experiment is ending. The banks, already owned by one company, are filing applications to merge under Security Bank’s charter and name.

The idea of shared branches just didn’t resonate as hoped.

“As much as the BancAbility branding has been successful, the market still doesn’t really think about that as one group,” Lewis said. “It’s not as powerful as one brand, one bank, one name.”

The BancAbility brand will phase out with the merger, which requires regulatory approval of the applications filed Friday. The banks are all owned by Valley View Bancshares Inc., which is owned by the families of the late Sherman Dreiseszun and the late Frank Morgan. The group’s assets totaled $3.2 billion at the end of March.

Lewis said the green leaf logo will stay, which will continue to help customers find their branches. The Security Bank name won out as promoting the ideas of strength, safety and capital backing that the group wanted to display.

“We need to solidify our brand in the marketplace and let people know our width and breadth,” Lewis said.

The banks had launched the experiment as a way to enjoy the benefits of sharing their branches and ATMs without losing their community identities. It is the chief reason the names and charters did not change nine years ago.

Those efforts in 2007 will make a formal merger of the banks easier. Customers’ account numbers won’t need to change, which is often the case when separately owned banks merge. Customers will be able to continue using their current bank cards, checks and other materials as usual.

Lewis said the merging banks want to keep their separate local ties and will keep their presidents in place, as well as the nearly 700 employees across the chain.

“We’re retaining everyone,” Lewis said.

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 6:34 AM with the headline "Seven-bank merger in Kansas City area ends experiment in sharing branches."