National City Bancshares of Evansville, Ind. is renaming its bank operations Integra Bank.
The new name should help avoid confusion and legal issues if the $2.2 billion-asset company expanded into new markets, said Michael T. Vea, chairman and chief executive officer.
Its 12 banks operate 66 branches in Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Ohio. The company is not related to the larger National City Corp. of Cleveland or to Minneapolis-based National City Bancorp.
Mr. Vea said National City Bancshares also wanted a bank name that could be federally trademarked, as Integra Bank now has been.
The lead bank, National City Bank of Evansville, will start calling itself Integra in May, the company said. All of the banks are to be consolidated into a single Integra Bank by September.
National City Bancshares started consolidating its charters a little over a year ago. It once had as many as 18.
