The two-year lifespan of WingspanBank.com is about to be cut short, as parent company Bank One Corp. said that all Wingspan services will be integrated into BankOne.com, the banks online division, by fall.
Bank One will transfer all 225,000 Wingspan customer accounts, and the Wingspan brand will be phased out entirely as part of the transition. The company said that because Bank One’s online services mirror those offered through Wingspan, customers should not be affected by the transition.
“When we started WingspanBank.com, our intention was to attract customers interested in online-only banking. We are making this transition, because it is more economical to have one brand online and retail customers are more familiar with Bank One’s online channel,” said Stan Lata, spokesman for Wilmington, DE-based Bank One.
Bank One has brand recognition through its established retail relationships in 14 states, Lata said. The transition will allow the company to reduce its marketing budget and save money by servicing all clients through a common back office, he said.
Bank One began alerting Wingspan customers on Thursday about the coming changes through e-mails and an announcement on the Web site, www.wingspan.com. The company will also send direct mail to its customers over the next two to three weeks further explaining the transition.
BankOne.com provides full service online banking to roughly 800,000 customers.
