Emigrant Bank, also known as Emigrant Savings, is the largest savings bank in the New York area. Although the business originally started as a savings bank for Irish immigrants to New York, thousands of people across the nation take advantage of Emigrant Savings banking. Personal banking services include checking accounts, savings accounts, CDs, annuities and mortgages.

History

A group of Irish immigrants to New York founded Emigrant Savings in 1850. Their goal was to provide banking services to Irish Immigrants in the New York City area. The owners of the bank easily surpassed their goal, and Emigrant Savings became the largest savings bank in the United States in the 1920s.

The founders of Emigrant Bank originally established their enterprise as a mutual savings bank, but the bank fell on hard times in the early 1980s, prompting them to convert it to a stock savings bank.

In 2005, Emigrant Savings established two subsidiaries to widen the bank's online presence. These subsidiaries, Emigrant Direct and Dollar Savings Direct, both specialize in online consumer savings accounts.

Emigrant Savings has two other subsidiaries: Emigrant Mortgage and New York Private Bank & Trust. Emigrant Mortgage provides home loans to consumers, and New York Private Bank & Trust is a wealth management company.

Emigrant Savings Facts

Today, Emigrant Savings is the largest privately owned bank in the United States. At the end of 2009, the bank had nearly 15.4 billion in assets, including the assets of affiliates. Of those, $12.9 billion were assets directly owned by Emigrant Savings. Equity capital of Emigrant Savings is $900 million, but including its affiliates, that figure rises to $1.2 billion.

Emigrant Savings banking is limited to traditional savings, but through its mortgage subsidiary, the bank has originated over 17,800 home loans. Other subsidiaries of Emigrant Bank include Emigrant Funding Corp., Emigrant Business Credit Corp., Emigrant Financial Services, Emigrant Capital and Emigrant Bank Fine Art Finance.

Emigrant Savings Banking Services

Emigrant Savings has a full range of banking products for consumers. Checking accounts come in three different types. Personal Banking Checking requires a combined balance of $2,500 or more. Interest Checking requires a minimum balance of $2,500 in the account and Basic Checking is has no minimum balance but has a monthly fee.

In addition to checking accounts, Emigrant Savings has three types of savings accounts. The Regular Savings is available as a statement account or a traditional passbook account. The other types are Money Market Savings and Special Purpose Savings.

Emigrant Savings is a financially stable bank primarily used by those living in the New York City area. However, the bank has expanded nationwide through its online subsidiaries.