New Haven Savings Bank. First Constitution Bank. Founders Bank. Union Trust Co. Connecticut Savings Bank. That’s just a partial list of the financial institutions that called New Haven home not so very long ago. Today all are gone, leaving New Haven with no locally owned bank companies — except for one: Start Bank. And in […]
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New Haven Savings Bank. First Constitution Bank. Founders Bank. Union Trust Co. Connecticut Savings Bank. That’s just a partial list of the financial institutions that called New Haven home not so very long ago.
Today all are gone, leaving New Haven with no locally owned bank companies — except for one: Start Bank. And in a nod to history as well as to its local roots and local ownership, Start Bank in August changed its name to New Haven Bank.
It seems only fitting. Start Bank was created in 2004 in the wake of the demise of the last locally owned New Haven bank — New Haven Savings Bank (NHSB), a mutual savings bank that traced its roots to 1838 but had undergone an ownership change and was being converted (in the face of considerable public opposition at the time) to public ownership.
Incorporating the former Tolland Bank and the Savings Bank of Manchester, NHSB’s successor institution became NewAlliance Bank. In 2011 NewAlliance Bank was merged into First Niagara Bank, which itself was acquired by KeyBank in 2016.
That same year as the NHSB conversion (2004), Start Bank’s parent company, the First City Fund Corp. was created to provide financial services to underserved consumers and businesses in greater New Haven.
Start Bank represented a new and different banking model — the community-development bank — that was created to invest capital in the community and to serve “as a catalyst for economic and social improvement” in its hometown.
Under the new name, the bank pledges to “maintain its promise to our community to be supportive of the neighborhoods and community organizations that work for the benefit of our populations at risk.”
The new name change is also intended to highlight the fact that Start/New Haven Bank is today the Elm City’s only locally owned and -headquartered financial-services institution.
More than anything else, the name change reflects “a doubling down on our mission,” explains bank Executive Vice President John DeStefano Jr., who was mayor when New Haven Savings Bank disappeared 15 years ago.
DeStefano notes that Start Bank has been profitable for four years now, and its asset base has grown to more than $140 million. There remains but one location, at 299 Whalley Ave., but DeStefano said a second location is likely to open in 2020.
“When we launched Start Bank it had more of a retail-banking focus, and we still do that,” DeStefano said. “But what we’ve become more than anything is a small-business and commercial real-estate bank.”
“When we chose [the name] ‘Start’ [in 2004], it seemed to make sense to us,” DeStefano explained. “But when you look at what we’ve been doing, particularly the last five years, we’re the New Haven bank.”
