WaFd changes name so you know it’s a bank

Tom Van Hemelryck, region president for Washington Federal – now WaFd Bank – knew he had to change its name when he looked at the results from a focus group.

Van Hemelryck recalled participants saying, ‘We didn’t know you were a bank.’ Some thought the bank was an arm of the federal government. Best of all was when somebody thought they were a federal penitentiary, he said.

“The name served the bank well for 103 years, but it was time for a change,” he said.

WaFd was actually a long-time nickname for the bank that was used for social media, as well as its Nasdaq ticker symbol, Van Hemelryck said.

“It’s a nice, natural fit,” he said. “It’s short and easy to remember. By adding ‘bank’ it makes it very clear who we are and what we do.”

Next steps

The next step are logistical.

“We’re rolling it out incrementally,” Van Hemelryck said. “There’s a very regimented structure for how we’ll do it in terms of signs. We’ll start with business cards.”

Signs on the buildings will be changed in about 90 days, he said.

The bank also took the opportunity to update its logo.

“Like any logo, there’s a story behind it,” Van Hemelryck said. “It’s an interlocking set of designs that’s meant to symbolize how we’re linked with our teams across the markets we share, and linked with clients and bankers who work for us.”

Future growth

Meanwhile, the bank is continuing its expansion plan in Idaho, which saw the Seattle-based company move its back office functionality to the state. The bank is up to 306 employees in Idaho; 106 are customer-facing in branches and on the commercial team, while 200 are in the back office. The company expects to add six employees to the back office in the next few weeks, and another 45 to 50 within the next few months, Van Hemelryck said.

Seattle employees who have relocated to Boise love it, Van Hemelryck said.

“They’re ecstatic over the fact that they can finally buy a house,” he said. “We talk a lot about traffic in Boise, but they get a 20-minute commute and they think life is great.”

The result is that the bank’s new office, in the former bodybuilding.com building, is “bursting at the seams,” Van Hemelryck said. While the bank – which still shares the building with tenant bodybuilding.com – has plenty of space, significant renovation is still required, he said.

“It’s going to take quite a bit more investment to open it up the way we need,” he said. The estimated timeframe is nine months.

WaFd will eventually need to take over the whole property.

“We’re not kicking anybody out,” Van Hemelryck said. “Maybe sooner than projected we could have a need for all the space. They have a lease and they’ve been a fantastic co-tenant.”

The next step may be renovation of some bank branches, Van Hemelryck said, though the company doesn’t plan to add any new ones.

“Some locations are a little outdated and not as optimal as they were 15 or 20 years ago,” he said, mentioning the bank’s east Idaho branches.

As the bank shifts to more digital transactions, the branches will reflect that, Van Hemelryck said.

“No bank is seeing the lobby traffic like they used to. They days of long teller rows, with five or six or seven windows, is going by the wayside.”

In addition, WaFd – which acquired a series of Idaho banks starting in the 1980s – may go that direction again.

“Looking at acquisitions is something we’d like to do,” Van Hemelryck said.