AUGUSTA — Kennebec Savings Bank is in the process of changing its organizational structure to better weather future financial crises and to give the bank more flexibility to acquire or create additional financial institutions.

The mutual savings bank has no plans to acquire any other entities, but the new structure would allow it to do so in the future, said Mark Johnston, the bank’s CEO and president.

Additional Photos

Kennebec Savings Bank headquarters in Augusta. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

For the future: Kennebec Savings Bank Executive Vice President Andrew Silsby, left, and President Mark Johnston outside the bank in a file photo from October 2013. They say the bank is converting to a new organizational structure to help it remain a mutual savings bank in the future. Staff file photo by Andy Molloy

The change also won’t have any effect on the rates and the services offered to customers, he said.

The bank applied with the Maine Bureau of Financial Institutions, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Federal Reserve to convert to the new structure, which will create a mutual holding company and a mid-tier holding company that will own all the stock of Kennebec Savings Bank.

The public comment period for the state regulator is open through April 20.

Kennebec Savings Bank is a mutual savings bank, meaning it is owned by its depositors, not by private stockholders.

The bank’s main office is in Augusta, and it also has branch offices in Farmindale, Waterville and Winthrop.

The change will help keep the bank mutual, Johnston said, because it will allow the bank to raise money in a financial crisis without selling the majority of the control to stockholders.

Paul Koenig can be contacted at 621-5663 or at:

pkoenig@centralmaine.comTwitter: @paul_koenig

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