Philadelphia Savings Fund Society
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| Public | |
| Industry | Savings bank |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Successor | Mellon Bank |
| Founded | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (1816) |
| Founder | Condy Raguet |
| Defunct | 1992 |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Products | Financial services |
The Philadelphia Savings Fund Society (PSFS), originally called the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, was a savings bank headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. PSFS was founded in December 1816, the first savings bank to organize and do business in the United States. The bank would develop as one of the largest savings banks in the United States; it became a Philadelphia institution with generations of Philadelphians first opened accounts as children and became lifelong depositors.
The bank was organized by a group of men led by Condy Raguet, who had read about the concept of savings banks becoming popular in Great Britain. The bank quickly began to expand by adding services and branches, and moving into larger headquarters buildings. By the late 1910s, PSFS had the most depositors of any savings bank in the United States; it was second to the Emigrant Savings Bank in the amount of money deposited. PSFS began programs in the 1920s that encouraged children to put money into savings accounts instead of spending it on treats and school programs, allowing children to open accounts with PSFS.
In the 1970s, changes in the personal finance industry led to smaller banks struggling to stay open. A government solution had such banks merge with healthier ones and in 1982, the Western Savings Fund Society was merged with PSFS. The merger deal and changes in regulations allowed PSFS to expand into new business ventures. PSFS quickly began expanding into other fields such as corporate finance, mutual funds, and real estate development.
In 1984 PSFS began doing business under the name Meritor Financial Group to emphasize its expansion into financial services. The new business venture led to the company losing millions of dollars; it was forced to sell off many of its subsidiaries and PSFS bank branches. Despite the effort, Meritor continued to lose money.
On December 11, 1992, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was appointed receiver of the 176-year-old bank and sold its remaining assets to Mellon Financial for US$335 million. PSFS survived through Mellon Financial's acquisition of the PSFS name and naming its bank branches Mellon PSFS. Mellon PSFS lasted until the end of 2001, when the branches were acquired by Citizens Financial Group and were renamed.
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