Manufacturers Hanover Corporation was the
bank holding company formed as parent of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, a large
New York bank formed by a merger in 1961. After 1969, Manufacturers Hanover Trust became a subsidiary of Manufacturers Hanover Corporation.
Charles J. Stewart was the company's first president and chairman.[1]
Manufacturers Hanover traces its origins to the 1905 founding of Citizens Trust Company of Brooklyn. Through a series of acquisitions, the bank would grow into one of New York's largest banks within its first twenty years. Citizens Trust's first major acquisitions came with its mergers with the Broadway Bank of Brooklyn in 1912 and then two years later with the Manufacturers National Bank of Brooklyn (1914). In 1915, the bank adopted the older "Manufacturers" name, changing its name to the Manufacturers Trust Company. The "Manufacturers" name had been in use since 1858, when the Mechanics' Bank of Williamsburgh (founded 1853) was renamed the Manufacturers National Bank. Coincidentally, Manufacturers Trust Company had also been the name of a
Brooklyn-based bank, founded in 1896 and acquired in 1902 by the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, another Brooklyn bank.[2]
Manufacturers Trust acquired a Manhattan presence with its acquisition of the West Side Bank of New York in 1918. Later Manufacturers Trust acquired the Ridgewood National Bank of Queens (1921), the North Side Bank of Brooklyn (1922), the Industrial Bank of New York (1922), the Columbia Bank of New York (1923), and the Yorkville Bank of New York (1925), to become the 29th largest bank in the United States by 1925.[3]
The National Hotel Management Company was dissolved within a month of Hitz's death in 1940.[5]
Continued consolidation (1961–1992)
In 1961,
Manufacturers Trust Company merged with Central Hanover Bank & Trust Company (Hanover Trust) creating Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. The bank became the main source of financing for check cashing stores. The bank reached its commercial heyday in the mid-1970s, when it ran a series of commercials that used the tagline, "It's banking the way you want it to be." Twilight Zone writer
Rod Serling and comedian
Paul Lynde served as celebrity spokesmen. At the same time, a Manufacturers Hanover billboard advertising "Super Checking" was a prominent feature of the newly renovated
Yankee Stadium. The billboard could be seen as
Chris Chambliss hit the home run that won the
1976 American League Championship Series for the
New York Yankees over the
Kansas City Royals. Also during that period, Manufacturers Hanover heavily promoted its "Any Car" Loan using an "Any Car", known as the "FordChevAmChrysWagon", made up of parts from 40 different cars.
In 1987, the bank bought some of the branches of Dollar Dry Dock Savings Bank. In 1992, it bought the New York City branches of the failed Goldome. By 1992, it was running out of money due to savings account interest rates and bad loans.[citation needed] On June 22 of that year, Chemical Bank purchased the operations of Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, and on that day, Manufacturers Hanover ceased to exist.[6]
Prior to acquisition, the bank was sometimes referred to as "Manny Hanny."[7]
Timeline of mergers and name changes
The timeline below, unless otherwise noted, indicates the purchase of the named entity by Manufacturers Hanover Corporation or its immediate controlling predecessors. Exceptions include the first and last entries (original charter and dissolution of the company by buyout, respectively), and several name changes.[8]
1905 – Citizens Trust Company of Brooklyn (original New York State charter, no direct predecessors)
1912 – Broadway Bank of Brooklyn
1914 – Manufacturers National Bank of Brooklyn, resulting in name change to Manufacturers-Citizens Trust Company
1915 – Name change to Manufacturers Trust Company (no merger involved)
1918 – West Side Bank
1921 – Ridgewood National Bank
1922 – North Side Bank of Brooklyn
1922 – Industrial Bank of New York
1923 – Columbia Bank
1925 – Yorkville Bank
1925 – Gotham National Bank
1925 – Fifth National Bank of the City of New York
1927 – Commonwealth Bank
1927 – Standard Bank
1928 – United Capitol National Bank and Trust Company
1961 – Central Hanover Bank & Trust Company, results in name change to Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company (parent named Manufacturers Hanover Corporation)
1992 – Purchased by
Chemical Bank, and ceases to exist
Central Hanover Bank & Trust Company
The final name of the company was Manufacturers Hanover Corporation, and the primary banking subsidiary was Manufacturers Hanover Trust. This name was a result of the merger of predecessor Manufacturers Trust with Central Hanover Bank & Trust.
Central Hanover was also a large, well-known bank before the merger. It was formed in 1929 from the merger of two other banking giants of the time, Central Union Trust Company and Hanover National Bank.[10]
Hanover National built one of the early skyscrapers of New York, the Hanover National Building at 11 Nassau Street. It had twenty-two floors and was 385 feet high.[11]
The corporate history of predecessor Hanover Bank is as follows:[8]
1851 – Established Hanover Bank, NYS charter
1865 – Name change to Hanover National Bank of the City of New York (Federal)
1929 – Name change to Hanover Bank of the City of New York (NYS)
1929 – Bought by Central Union Trust Company of New York (see below)
The corporate history of predecessor Central Union Trust Company is as follows:[8][12]
1873 – Established Central Trust Company of New York
1901 – Continental National Bank of New York (est. 1853)[13]