The "Bank" in "BankSimple" was problematic for us. We're technically not a bank. We also don't want to be associated with the way people have approached banking, particularly in the US.

Sorry you're not crazy about the new name, but we're happy with it. It gives us a lot of room to grow.

There are actually laws prohibiting non-banks from using the word "bank" in their name. A lot of bank holding companies (which are not, technically, banks) got around this by replacing the "k" in "bank" with a "c" -- such as "BancAmerica Corp". I'm sure we all breathed a sigh of regulatory relief seeing that "c" there.

Yup. Those laws are pretty loosely enforced and vary on a state-by-state basis, but they're definitely a concern.

Is avoiding regulation as simple as changing what you call yourself?

UberCab becoming Uber is another pretty good example of this name switch to get ahead of regulators from a brand perspective.

If the regulation governs naming, then yes.

1-600-DOCTORB ("The B is for 'Bargain'")

Thanks Dr. Nick!

I'm a fan of the name Simple instead of BankSimple. I bank with ING and USAA at the moment, and I've never had any trouble with the fact that neither one has the name "Bank" in their brand.

I agree, calling it "BankSimple" feels limiting, and carries baggage from bad experiences I've had with banks in the past.

Now if only I could get an invitation to open an account!

Do you have to be in the military to have a usaa account or how we you able to use them? I've heard many good things

USAA is available to military and their families. You don't have to be active duty, once you're eligible, you're in for life.

If you do qualify, USAA is about the best company you'll ever deal with for insurance or banking.

Actually, USAA is open to anyone. You have to be military to access some of their loan products, but not for the basic stuff.

You can get some basic products from USAA, including some banking (no insurance though), but you can't be a full member unless you're military.

I have some idea of the regulatory nightmare that becoming a bank represents so I understand the approach, but is that on the long term radar?

It seems that a technologically driven bank could offer even more interesting services to individuals and businesses.

Edit: Or would love to chat in person over coffee (on twitter @scottmarkwell)

A non-bank entity cant have the word "Bank" in the name, but any other spelling is okay. BancSimple is legal.

The changed spelling is to indicate that it is not a bank and its accounts are not insured by the FDIC.

e.g. Banc of America Securities, U.S. Bancorp

Oh but I wish you were a bank or credit union. How my deposits are used is something we should be able to negotiate about.

I'm assuming you mean this in a "move your money" kind of way right?

Even though I sympathize with the problems having "bank" in a name, "Simple" is just too general to be useful.

http://simpel.com and http://simpel.nl disagree with that statement. http://simple.fr and http://einfach.com also are taken, but redirect.

Nitpicking: simpel.nl is actually a word joke, because they sell SIM-only cell phone subscriptions. So in effect their name does convey more meaning than "Simple" does, so it doesn't really belong in your list :)

Can I have your banksimple.com domain name when you're done with it?

Nope, sorry ;)

Whatever Simple is, I suspect it doesn't have to comply with every single state's regulations on exactly what can call itself a bank.

While I think this may be true at first, if they gain any critical mass, the "Bank" in BankSimple would become redundant and wasteful.

I think it is good and forward looking to rebrand it Simple before launch so that becomes synonymous with banking. Imagine if Google was instead called GoogleSearch? Google became synonymous for Search and therefore the Search portion of their name is superfluous.

I for one applaud this move and think the branding is nice, clean, and, of course, simple ;)

Like how the "bank" in "Bank of America" is redundant and wasteful?

To clarify, I don't really care either way- I'm sure they had other reasons for dropping the "Bank" from their name, especially since they're not really a bank.

Wells Fargo and Suntrust are well-known banks, too.

Official name "SunTrust Bank", owned by "SunTrust Banks, Inc."

Official name "Wells Fargo Bank, N.A." owned by "Wells Fargo & Company".

That's precisely the point vaporstun was making — we commonly omit the "Bank" from those names because it's seen as redundant.

But I was replying to tdoggette not vaporstun, who was making (I think) the opposite point.

So my response was to point out that actually the banks we think of as not having "bank" in the name do, and it hasn't stopped us from referring to them without it. So if they stuck with Bank Simple, it would help people initially understand what they do, then once (if) they become a household name, people could refer to them as "Simple".

Of course, this is all ignoring the whole legislation stuff.

Many banks in the UK are referred to, and understood, in everyday language without the "bank": Barclays, Halifax, Natwest, Santander, Lloyds to name a few.

I think an important difference is that those are relatively unique words, unlike Simple, which is common and ambiguous.

Telling someone that you have your money in a simple account doesn't convey as much meaning as telling someone you have your money in a Barclay's account.

That's a very good point well put. "Simple account" might even be a description of the level of account you have, causing further confusion.

Colloquially, they're "B of A".

That's true in the Bay Area at least, but not necessarily everywhere. Back when I was their customer I recall visiting NYC, and asking several random strangers if they knew where I could find a "B of A", and none of them knew what I was talking about, until I clarified, "Bank of America".

I'm a New Yorker and I know what you mean by "B of A," as do many of the people I know. I think we're both dealing with small anecdotal data sets here, though.

That could also depend on when he visited. NYC is still ruled by Chase - there's one almost every other block, whereas I struggle to find BofA ATMs.

And I call it "bowfah" myself.

"America" sounds so much better!

No more redundant than Bank of America or Citibank...

I disagree. Even Citibank doesn't use the "bank" part on their main website, instead going by just Citi: http://citi.com

There are also many other large banks that omit "Bank" from their name such as Wells Fargo.

Keep in mind this is not a traditional bank, so following the rules of traditional banks would be inappropriate. They are better off following the rules of progressive startups which have been using simplicity in their names quite successfully as of late (e.g. Square).

As for Bank of America, you couldn't remove the Bank from Bank of America or it'd just be America which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I don't think Bank of America, aside from controlling most of the banks in this country, is an objectively great brand. Rather, I thought it always tried to piggyback and sound like a federal entity which it's not and always found its name disingenuous.

Actually, http://citi.com redirects to citibank.com for me.

They use both, https://creditcards.citi.com/ is the 'official' domain name for Credit Card side of things.

Thanks for getting it :)

For me at the moment, googling 'simple' produces nothing which looks like this company. It is going to be a hard term to reach the top of.

Of course they are top for 'banksimple' or 'simple bank'.

This may be one of the few times I like the original name better than the one a company re-brands itself as.

I wish companies could so something like a pretend re-brand and make a fake post on their blog, submit it to HN and then see what the feedback is before just jumping in. HN provides some of the best and most brutal feedback I've seen in a community that simply can't be replicated by a focus group or board meeting.

I preferred BankSimple too, but I guess having Bank in the name would present too many problems. Simple seems very generic, no offense guys.

None taken. "Simple" is a generic term, and it's up to us to build it into a strong brand over time.

Which I'm sure you will. Looks like a great idea and I look forward to the day you come to Canada.

By the way, the on-page anchors in your footer aren't working atm (#features, #vision, #sign-up, etc.).

> What is "Simple?"

Shoes.

but only shoes with velcro straps, binding bootlaces is complicated.

In some regions of Germany, the noun "Simpel" means idiot (it still means "simple" as an adjective). Also note that the spelling is slightly different, but the pronunciation is pretty much the same. Just in case these guys ever want to reach around the globe...

Can I who told you that? I'm German and I have never heard that "Simpel" as the German noun is associated with idiot or idiotic thinks.

Simpel just means simple. Maybe it is not seen like the simpleness which American people try to express with the word but either it just means simple.

I love to have more simpleness in Germany. Please do consider to expand to Germany or Europe!

"Simple" in English can have that connotation - a simpleton is someone who is simple, after all.

Here's a thread from a German discussion forum about the particular meaning of "Simpel".

http://www.gutefrage.net/frage/du-simpel

Same in English; calling someone "simple" is short for "simple-minded" or "a simpleton".

Don't hear it used much though, and it's unlikely to be the first thing that pops into someone's head.

You have a cheesy nickname, so it doesn't count. An organization that handles money doesn't need to be experimental on the name. I think it needs to be more on the safe side. It's money after all.

That is akin to asking: "What is 'Apple'? A fruit company?"

Mint, Square, Ally. I think the naming convention fits other examples of successful startups in this space.

'Ally' is not a successful startup. Ally is the rebranded GMAC, whose founding dates back to 1919. GMAC was renamed (and officially transformed into a registered bank) as part of a series of changes which included receiving over $16 billion in federal bailout assistance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ally_Financial

Though I suppose 'Ally' was a spectacular renaming, and their advertising is working, if it gives people the impression Ally is a can-do startup!

Avoid GMAC (Ally now) like the plague.

Rife with fraud internally (My mother used to work there and told some horrible stories of how they screwed over customers).

Eh, Ally isn't just "Ally Inc," it's "Ally Financial," and it uses the term "Ally Bank" in advertising its banking services. And Mint doesn't do banking at all — they're purely an analytics service.

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