Hancock Whitney Corp. unveiled its new logo this morning, part of a rebranding effort that began last fall, when the company changed its name from Hancock Holding Corp. The bank’s more than 200 branches across the Gulf South will begin sporting the new logo later this month.
The Gulfport, Mississippi-based company had been operating as Whitney Bank in Louisiana and Texas and as Hancock Bank In Mississippi, Alabama and Florida since Hancock acquired the New Orleans-based Whitney in 2011.
Back then, bank officials said the two institutions—both longstanding, old money banks in their conservative Deep South markets—would keep their individual names. But things have changed over the past seven years, and the new name is a natural progression of the bank’s evolution since the merger, bank officials say.
“When they came together in 2011, given how strong the brands were, the decision was made to keep their respective names in the markets where they were well known, which worked very well,” says Robert Schneckenburger, senior market president of Hancock Whitney. “But though it worked well, it has been a complicating factor so we came to the conclusion there is nothing better than to use the two strong names we already have.”
Since the merger in 2011, Hancock Whitney assets have grown more than 37%. At the time of the deal, the combined institutions had assets of some $20 billion. Today, they top $27.5 billion.
In the Baton Rouge market, Hancock Whitney is proving particularly aggressive. In 2017, the bank had the largest percentage increase in market share of all 35 financial institutions doing business in the local market, says Schneckenburger, who left Chase Bank to join Hancock Whitney in 2016.
Hancock Whitney is the third-largest bank in the market behind J. P. Morgan Chase Bank and Capital One Bank. It finished 2017 with more than 11% of local market share and nearly $1.8 billion in deposits—up from $1.6 billion in deposits and 10% of market share in 2016.
Chase and Capital One still have more than 60% of all local market share combined. But as they have continued to shrink their footprint in tertiary markets like Baton Rouge in recent years, they have created opportunities for growth for regional banks like Hancock Whitney, says Schneckenburger, who predicts it will continue.
“I think the banking environment in Baton Rouge is going to look very different five years from now,” he says. “In five years, I want us to be number one in the market.”
