Customers frown and bear bank's third name in a year. (Up Front).

Here we go again.

A year after going through one name change, customers of the former Sanwa Bank California and Tokai Bank of California are about to endure another re-branding.

This week, Bank of the West will kick off a multimillion-dollar ad campaign that will put to rest the year-old United California Bank name -- itself the spawn of last year's merger between Sanwa and Tokai.

"We're calling them one thing and then the next week they're called another, and they say 'Here are our new business cards but they won't be good for long because we're going to change again,' " said Paul Rutherford, president of Rutherford Co., a Los Angeles subcontracting company. "It's like, 'Damn, get it together already, you're an important part of our business."'

The $5 million rebranding effort comes just months after Bank of the West's $2.4 billion purchase of United California Bank from its Japanese parent in March.

Rutherford, who originally was a Sanwa customer, said he has no complaints with Bank of the West's service thus far. "They've been good to work with," he said.

UCB was formed in July 2001 through the merger of Tokai and Sanwa's Japanese parents. That month, to introduce California to UCB, the merged company kicked off a $10 million ad campaign in an attempt to singe the United California Bank name into the minds of consumers.

Only about $4 million was spent.

Six months after its creation, UCB said it would merge with Bank of the West, a unit of BNP Paribas SA of France, to form a $25 billion institution operating in six Western states. BNP is the world's seventh largest banking company, with $825 billion in assets.

The deal gives BNP a long-desired toehold in Southern California, where UCB has 48 branches in L.A. County alone.

"Clearly, Los Angeles is the major market in the West," said Don McGrath, president and chief executive of Bank of the West and its holding company, Banc West Corp.

BancWest, based in San Francisco, has $34 billion in assets, including Bank of the West and First Hawaiian Bank in Hawaii. Since its merger with UCB on April 1, Bank of the West has been preparing for the official introduction of its bear logo into Southern California.

"We're trying to make the transition as vanilla as we can," McGrath said.

That would be a relief to many customers, as the last transition was a confusing one.

Some Sanwa and Tokai branches kept their signage after the merger; it took months to remove the Sanwa logo from the company's 50-story headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. Meantime, television, print and radio ads told customers about United California Bank.

Bank of the West's marketing blitz will be a smaller but more concerted effort, consisting of cosmetic changes and a months-long advertising campaign.

The 48 UCB branches already have been fitted with new Bank of the West signs, and then bagged-over with temporary UCB signage. On Sept. 16, Bank of the West will unveil all of them at once.

Bank of the West, which has acquired 11 banks since 1990, will fall back on its "Bears in..." slogan that it has used in past campaigns as it entered new markets. The slogan, reconstituted this time as "Bears in Southern California," refers to Bank of the West's bear logo.

For Paul Schoendienst, owner of Concrete Tie Industries in Compton, the effort is too little too late. Schoendienst, a former Sanwa customer, said service fell off when United California Bank was formed, and then continued downward when Bank of the West took over.

"They started 'fee-ing' us to death but there wasn't anybody to complain to," he said. Two months ago Schoendienst left Bank of the West for American Business Bank in Los Angeles.

Through the first transition, deposits and assets at UCB held steady. Net income, though, fell to $22.4 million in the first quarter ended March 31, the last time UCB reported its results independently. It was $43 million in the first quarter of 2001. UCB had $11.5 billion in assets and $7 billion in deposits at the end of the first quarter.

Before the merger, Bank of the West had 194 branches in California and five other states, but almost no presence in Southern California.

The combined company has 218 branches in California. There will be no layoffs as a result of the merger, but 15 Northern California branches will be closed. The company will open two new L.A. County branches next week, it said.

"To change the name again represents an incredible challenge, and certainly makes you wonder whether it's a good idea or not," said Lee Kovel, creative director of advertising firm Kovel/Fuller in Los Angeles.

That wouldn't hew to Bank of the West's previous acquisitions, though.

"It's important for us to build the brand," McGrath said. "It's a little painful to change names, but we've been at this a long time. We're not facing a situation where you have a 20-year brand that we're changing."

RELATED ARTICLE: Changing Names

1953 -- Sanwa Bank Ltd. opens its first U.S. office in San Francisco.

1978 -- After a series of acquisitions, Sanwa Bank of California changes its name to Golden State Sanwa Bank.

1986 -- Sanwa Bank Ltd. acquires Lloyds Bank California and merges it with Golden State Sanwa Bank; renames it Sanwa Bank California.

2001 -- In Japan a merger among Sanwa, Tokai and Toyo Trust banks forms UJF Holdings Inc. In Los-Angeles, Sanwa and Tokai merge; name changed to United California Bank.

2002 -- United California Bank is acquired from UFJ Holdings Inc. by BNP Paribas and integrated into its U.S. subsidiary, Bank of the West.