- This article discusses the current entity which operates as Chevy Chase Bank. An unrelated institution, Chevy Chase Bank and Trust Company, was founded in 1969 and subsequently merged with Citizens Bank and Trust Company of Maryland in 1977, now part of SunTrust Banks.
Chevy Chase Bank, FSB is one of the largest financial services companies based in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Despite its name, it is a federally chartered thrift regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision, rather than a bank. It is privately held and controlled by the B.F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust; B. Francis Saul II, the grandson of its founder, serves as its chairman. The bank's core business is residential mortgages and consumer banking; its mortgage subsidiary, the B.F. Saul Mortgage Company, is one of the leading mortgage originators in the region.[1] As of March 31, 2006 it held $10,649,183 in deposits. Chevy Chase Bank has more than 250 branches [1] throughout Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, and claims to have the largest network of ATMs in the Washington area. Officially it is based in McLean, Virginia, although according to ABA routing information it is based in Laurel, Maryland. Its headquarters offices are in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and East-West Highway. Its main competitors are the retail banking divisions of larger, supraregional companies such as Bank of America, BB&T, SunTrust Banks, and Wachovia, and so emphasizes its local nature and community involvement in its advertising. It uses a caricature portrayal of Benjamin Franklin as its advertising mascot, who repeats the tagline The Leading Local Bank in its television commercials.
History
Saul founded the institution as the Chevy Chase Savings And Loan Association on October 11, 1955, taking the name from Chevy Chase, Maryland. It became an FDIC-insured federal savings bank in 1985 and changed its name to Chevy Chase Savings Bank, FSB accordingly the following year. It acquired the Standard Savings and Loan Association of Grundy, Virginia, in 1988. In 1994, it adopted its current name and on January 16, 1996, moved its headquarters from Chevy Chase to McLean.[2] A branch office in Baltimore, Maryland, occupies the historic Alex. Brown & Sons Building.
References
- FDIC Certificate #32324: Chevy Chase Bank, F.S.B.
- The Washington Post, 2005 Post 200: Chevy Chase Bank FSB
