On July 30, 2010, PeoplesBank.com expired, and it now appears to be coming up for auction on NameJet. The previous registrant was Maine Bank and Trust, located at 6 Atlantis Way in Lewiston, Maine. According to some research I did, TDBank is (or was) located in that space, which jives up with the @banknorth.com email address used by the registrant, since Banknorth is now known as TD Bank (they were known as TD Banknorth for a while).
I’ve done some research, and it appears that the ownership of this domain name is about as confusing as the history of bank mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and other activities that faced many local banks. Maine Bank and Trust owned this domain name (and is still listed as registrant). Similarly, Maine Bank and Trust also owned MaineBank.com back in 2001. If you visit MaineBank.com now, you’ll see a message that says Maine Bank & Trust is now People’s United Bank, and you are forwarded to Peoples.com.
The strange thing to me is that People’s United Bank and TD Bank do not appear to be related. Somehow, TD Bank ended up with PeoplesBank.com, while People’s United Bank ended up with Maine Bank & Trust, but not the PeoplesBank.com domain name that shows Maine Bank & Trust as its most recent registrant.
Making things even more confusing is the historical information on TD Bank’s website regarding the Peoples brand name: “The company first opened its doors as Portland Savings Bank in Portland, Maine, in 1852, and later grew through a series of mergers and became Peoples Heritage Bank in 1983. At the turn of the millennium, the opportunity for growth presented itself again as Peoples Heritage Bank, through several acquisitions, expanded deeper into New England and took the name Banknorth.”
Although this particular domain name has not had a website on it in quite some time, it’s an important domain name for security purposes.
Across the United States and throughout the world, there are a number of People’s Banks. Some of these banks include:
- Peoples United Bank (Peoples.com)
- The Peoples Bank (ThePeoples.com)
- People’s Bank (PeoplesBank-WA.com)
- Peoples Bank (PeoplesBancorp.com)
- PeoplesBank (BankAtPeoples.com)
- People’s Bank (PeoplesBankMTW.com)
- Many more can be found by searching Google
Hopefully someone from TD Bank, People’s, or possibly one of the other banks known as Peoples will make sure this domain name doesn’t fall into the hands of someone who could potentially use it maliciously. Compete shows that over 6,000 people a month visit PeoplesBank.com.
Won’t touch it–TM issue
Interesting.
Yes, my bank here in Western Massachusetts is a Peoples Bank. They are the ones using BankAtPeoples.com. Perhaps I should mention it to the branch manager when I go there tomorrow…
TD Bank formerly TD Banknorth bought out Peoples Heritage about 5 years ago I think and this is how TD Banknorth acquired the website PeoplesBank.com. I am sure down the line Peoples United Bank will look at this domain they are a good size regional bank. What they will do who knows…
Who is to blame?
or
Who’s to blame?
You are right… thank you for your continued positive contributions… You’re helping to make DomainInvesting.com a more grammatically correct website and it’s appreciated by all.
Whoever is handling TD Banks domains is seriously dropping the ball. They let commerceonline.com drop months ago along with others. Most of the domains belonging to their bank acquisitions are being rebranded to TD and they seem to be letting domains go without realizing. Someone posted about this a while back
http://directnavigation.com/2009/09/tdbank-com-did-they-forget-to-renew-their-old-commerceonline-domains-or-something-worse/
I expect to see more of these names drop as TD expands unless somebody wakes up.