Reading Cooperative Bank Launches a New Logo and Fresh Look

Reading, MA – TODAY, Reading Cooperative Bank unveiled a new logo, look and feel that celebrate its commitment to customers and its community. The new logo, colors and tagline, “For you. By you.” were created to reflect RCB’s heritage as a cooperative bank, created by Reading leaders and owned today by bank customers. Shanna Cahalane, Director of Marketing, explains the dynamic new look, “The logo was inspired by Reading’s Parker Tavern and reflects the Bank’s original mission – to promote homeownership. The colored dots that make up the logo are diverse, dynamic and vibrant, representing individual customers, community and collaboration. You can see that the word ‘Cooperative’ is boldly highlighted in red, because we embrace who we are and are proud of that element; we also dropped the hyphen, because we’re all about unity and simplicity.” Reading Cooperative’s progressive spirit dates back to 1886, when it was founded in the earliest years of “cooperative” banking in Massachusetts. The Bank was formed by a group of local depositors to help each other own a home. That same sense of community and commitment to financial independence is stronger today than ever.

The fact that that every depositor has an equal vote sets a “cooperative” apart from other types of banks; in Massachusetts, there is another difference - cooperative banks have their deposits insured in-full, first by the FDIC to its limit of $250,000 then all amounts above the FDIC limit are insured by the Share Insurance Fund (SIF) of the Co-operative Central Bank. Julieann Thurlow, the Bank’s President and CEO, serves on the Board of the Co-operative Central Bank. She is excited about the rebranding effort and proud of the Bank’s legacy. 
She said, “Our priority is and always will be our customers, our community and our employees; we don’t answer to stockholders or a parent company; we have a different structure, goals, and values than public banks do. And yes, banks can have values-based leadership.”

Her statement comes on the heels of a recent move to strengthen and protect the Bank’s status as a private cooperative. In December, RCB gave customers the opportunity to vote to amend the Bank’s bylaws to make it tougher to convert the Bank’s charter from a mutually owned cooperative to a publicly traded company. Customers voted overwhelmingly to maintain the Bank’s status as a depositor owned cooperative.



You can visit any of Reading Cooperative Bank’s 8 branches in six local communities to see and celebrate the new 21st century look: Reading, Wilmington, North Reading, Woburn, Andover, Burlington and their educational branch at Reading Memorial High School. The new look will launch on readingcoop.com in the next couple of weeks.