Girard Bank was a Philadelphia-based bank founded after the death of Stephen Girard in 1831 by local merchants eager to trade on the sterling reputation of their namesake. Stephen Girard neither founded the bank, nor had any financial ties to the bank that bore his name.[1] The bank was acquired by Mellon Bank in 1983 and then, two decades later, by Citizens Bank.
Founding and early history
After the charter for the First Bank of the United States expired in 1811, Stephen Girard purchased most of its stock and its facilities on South Third Street in Philadelphia, then reorganized it under his direct personal control. He hired George Simpson, the cashier of the First Bank, as cashier of the new bank, and with seven other employees, opened for business on May 18, 1812. He allowed the Trustees of the First Bank of the United States to use some offices and space in the vaults to continue the process of winding down the affairs of the closed bank at a very nominal rent.[2] Although Pennsylvania law prohibited an association of individuals from banking without a charter, it made no such prohibition on a single individual doing so.[3]