NationsBank will become Bank of America, but not this year.

Officially, Thursday was the first day of the new Bank of America, created by the merger of NationsBank Corp. and BankAmerica Corp.

The new bank, which holds 8 percent of the nation's bank deposits and has a relationship with one of three American households, is the largest bank in the United States, serving 5,000 banking offices in 22 states and the District of Columbia.

"But we're not going to change anything right now," said Steve Taylor, NationsBank community president for Cape Girardeau and Jackson. "We will continue to operate as NationsBank into 1999."

New signs in this area will not go up unit the latter part of next year, said Taylor, adding: "There's no worry about crossover in this market, and all customers will maintain their current account number."

The only overlap in any service created by the merger is in Texas and New Mexico.

Customers of both banks should continue to bank as they have, using their existing checks, ATM cards, credit cards, other products and services.

New signs will start to appear everywhere next year and continue into the year 2000 for completion of the new name and new look, said Hugh McColl, chairman and chief executive officer of the new bank.

McColl, speaking to the company's associates via national television commercials late Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, unveiled the new name and logo.

"We believe we have made an excellent choice to express who we are, what we believe and where we aspire to take this great new company," said McColl. "We proudly introduce the new Bank of America."

The company was created by the merger of BankAmerica and NationsBank, which was completed Wednesday. The new company logo presents the name in a new shade of blue and a clear contemporary typeface.

The new bank also announced an immediate $1 million grant-making initiative aimed at improving life in communities nationwide. Cape Girardeau was one of 100 cities selected to distribute a $10,000 grant to an organization chosen by its associates.

The Community Caring Council, a Cape Girardeau non-profit organization will receive a $10,000 donation today. Four Missouri cities were selected to distribute grants. Other grants will be presented at Springfield, Columbia and St. Louis.

In each of the 100 communities picked, the local bank associates selected an organization to receive the award, with those organizations focusing on meeting the educational needs of children and families in low- to moderate-income areas.

Bank of America, with $572 billion in assets, provides financial products and services to 30 million households and 2 million businesses as well as providing international corporate financial services for business transactions in 190 countries. Bank of America Corp. is listed on the New York, Pacific, London and Tokyo stock exchanges.

The merger, proposed by the two banks in April, had to receive regulatory approval from the Federal Reserve and shareholder approval from stockholders of both corporations.

Starting Thursday, NationsBank shareholders started seeing the usual market fluctuations in price. BankAmerica shareholders, however, noticed their individual share values were lower than the closing price Wednesday, reflecting that they now own 1.1316 shares for each share they previously owned.