First Pennsylvania Bank was a
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...
based in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. Founded in 1782, it was for centuries the oldest bank in the United States until it was acquired by
CoreStates Financial Corporation
CoreStates Financial Corporation, previously known as Philadelphia National Bank (PNB), was an American bank holding company in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area.
The bank was renamed in the mid-1980s after a series of mergers. A ...
in 1989.
In the 1970s, First Pennsylvania officials attempted to turn their firm, then a "sedate regional bank", into a major national concern.
Aggressive and risky lending and investments turned the bank into Philadelphia's largest, but in 1980, led to huge losses and panicked depositors. The federal government gave the bank a $500 million bailout,
the first major federal bailout of a national bank.
See also
*
List of bank mergers in the United States
This is a partial list of major banking company mergers in the United States.
Table
Mergers chart
This 2012 chart shows some of the mergers noted above. Solid arrows point from the acquiring bank to the acquired one. The lines are labeled ...
References
{{Wells Fargo
Banks based in Pennsylvania
Defunct banks of the United States