Lincoln Bank Must Wait to Alter Name

Lincoln National Bank’s plan to change its name to end confusion with the scandal-plagued Lincoln Savings & Loan has been held up by an Anaheim-based thrift.

United California Savings Bank won a temporary court order last Tuesday restraining Lincoln National, based in Encino, from using a similar name, California United Bank, until a U.S. district judge can hold a full hearing on the issue July 18.

Regulators already had approved the bank’s name change. Norvald L. (Larry) Ulvestad, United California Savings’ chairman and president, declined comment on the litigation.

Executives at the prosperous Lincoln National believe the business-oriented bank has been wrongly tarnished because it has been confused with Irvine-based Lincoln Savings, one of the nation’s biggest and most notorious thrift failures, and because the names of its major executives add to the confusion.

Lincoln National’s president, John J. Keating, has the same last name as Charles H. Keating Jr., head of the Phoenix company that owned Lincoln Savings before regulators seized it in April, 1989. The two, however, are not related.

Lincoln National’s parent company won shareholder approval at the company’s annual meeting June 19 to change the holding company’s name to CU Bancorp.