It’s the second-largest community bank in the state, but few people east of Springfield may have ever heard of Berkshire Bank.

The bank, with $7.8 billion in assets, is aiming to change that with the opening of its first downtown Boston branch in December.

Based in Pittsfield, Berkshire is more of a household name in western Massachusetts, southern Connecticut, and eastern New York. But the bank’s executives have been eager to extend its footprint and ambitions into Boston to take advantage of the city’s growth and competitive business lending environment. For many community banks in the state, having a branch in the capital city also carries a certain cache.

Berkshire has been creeping east in recent years, opening a branch in Chelmsford and lending offices in Burlington and Needham, and has been advertising during Boston Bruins games to increase its profile with the slogan, “America’s Most Exciting Bank.’’

“It made sense that the next step would be to establish a retail branch location in the city,’’ Tami Gunsch, the bank’s executive vice president of retail banking, said in an e-mail. “Boston is an exciting new market for us and we are open to expanding our services in the future as the opportunities become available to us.’’

The branch will be on Federal Street at Post Office Square and resemble some of the bank’s more updated branches, with teller stations that resemble pods. Like most banks, Berkshire has been redesigning its layout to meet the shifting demands of consumers who handle most daily financial transactions online and only walk into a branch for more complicated issues and loans.

The bank is awaiting approval from the state’s banking commissioner.

If approved, Berkshire will join a neighborhood already packed with community bank branches, including Wellesley Bank, Century Bank from Somerville, and Cambridge Savings Bank’s wealth advisory arm.

Deirdre Fernandes can be reached at deirdre.fernandes@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @fernandesglobe.