Farmers' Bank of Delaware was the second bank chartered by

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

. It operated from 1807 until 1981, when it was on the verge of

bank failure A bank failure occurs when a bank is unable to meet its obligations to its depositors or other creditors because it has become insolvent or too illiquid to meet its liabilities. A bank typically fails economically when the market value of its ass ...

and was acquired by Girard Bank. At that time, the bank had 28

branches A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includi ...

. For most of its existence, the bank was 49% owned by the state government, although it was privately managed.

History

On February 4, 1807, the

Delaware General Assembly The Delaware General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Delaware Senate with 21 senators and the Delaware House of Representatives with 41 representatives. It meets at Legi ...

passed legislation allowing the Farmers' Bank to incorporate and issue $500,000 of capital, via 10,000 shares at $50 each. The bank was incorporated by Henry M. Ridgely in

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

, with branches in New Castle and Georgetown. The bank was established to provide banking and credit services to farmers in Kent and Sussex Counties, ending the 12 years of monopoly in banking services held by the

National Bank of Delaware The National Bank of Delaware (founded as the Bank of Delaware) was the first bank chartered in the U.S. state of Delaware. Based in Wilmington, the bank operated independently from 1795 to 1929, when it was merged into the Security Trust Company, ...

in the state. A supplementary charter on January 22, 1813, added a fourth branch in Wilmington. In 1816, the

Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Second Report on Public Credit, Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January ...

selected the bank as a local depository for federal revenues. In 1837, the bank was selected as the depository for the federal surplus. In 1899, the branch in New Castle was closed after the city went into decline. In February 1976, the bank held merger talks with Girard Bank. In 1976, the state of Delaware increased its ownership from 49% to 80% after the bank lost $20.8 million in 1975 and the

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is a State-owned enterprises of the United States, United States government corporation supplying deposit insurance to depositors in American commercial banks and savings banks. The FDIC was cr ...

(FDIC) noted that it would cost more to liquidate the bank than to inject capital. As part of the deal between Governor Sherman W. Tribbitt and the FDIC, the state of Delaware agreed to keep all its deposits in the bank. On December 20, 1981, when the bank was on the verge

, it was acquired by Girard Bank for $38.6 million, which required the passage of a special statute that allowed the Pennsylvania-based Girard Bank to acquire a Delaware bank. Girard Bank was acquired by

Mellon Bank Mellon Financial Corporation was an American investment firm which was once one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth individual asset manage ...

in 1984 and was sold in 2001 to

Citizens Financial Group Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is an American bank holding company, headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island. The company owns the bank Citizens Bank, N.A., which operates in the U.S. states of Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Massach ...

Management history

Among the presidents of the bank were: * Henry M. Ridgely (1807-) * Allan Thomson (October 22, 1831, to January 7, 1836) * James A. Bayard Jr. (January 7, 1836, to January 5, 1843) * David C. Wilson (January 5, 1843, to March 31, 1865) * Charles I. du Pont (April 6, 1866, to December 12, 1868) * Francis Barry (January 7, 1868, to January 8, 1878) * George Richardson (January 3, 1878, to at least 1888)

References

{{Authority control 1807 establishments in Delaware Banks established in 1807 Dover, Delaware Defunct banks of the United States