Chevy Chase Bank
Encyclopedia
Chevy Chase Bank, F.S.B. was the largest locally-based banking company in the Washington Metropolitan Area
. It was acquired by Capital One
in 2009 and rebranded as Capital One Bank in 2010. Despite its name, Chevy Chase Bank was a federally chartered thrift
regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision
, rather than a bank
. It was formerly held and controlled by the B. F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust; B. Francis Saul II, who founded the REIT and is the grandson of the founder of the B. F. Saul Company
, served as its chairman.
. Saul's grandson, B. Francis Saul II, opened the S&L on December 1, 1969, 50 years to the day after his grandfather, B. F. Saul opened Home Savings and Loan (subsequently merged into American Security Bank - now part of Bank of America). It became an FDIC
-insured federal savings bank in 1985 and changed its name to Chevy Chase Savings Bank, F.S.B. accordingly the following year. It acquired the Standard Savings and Loan Association of Grundy, Virginia
, in 1988.
It adopted its most recent name in 1994 and on January 16, 1996, moved its registration from Chevy Chase to McLean. It moved into its actual headquarters in Bethesda in 2001.
In 1995 it acquired the historic Alex. Brown & Sons Building
in Baltimore, Maryland, which was renovated the following year and used for a branch office.
On December 4, 2008, Capital One
announced it would be acquiring Chevy Chase Bank. The acquisition was completed on February 27, 2009. On Friday, September 10, 2010 at 7pm, Chevy Chase Bank shed its name, opening its doors on Monday, September 13, 2010 as Capital One Bank.
14.0 billion in deposits.
Chevy Chase Bank had more than 290 branches in Delaware
, Maryland
, Virginia
, and the District of Columbia, and claimed to have the largest network of ATM
s in the Washington area.
According to ABA routing information it was based in Laurel, Maryland
, while the bank's headquarters
offices were in downtown Bethesda, Maryland
, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and East-West Highway
. According to its FDIC certificate, the firm was headquartered in McLean, Virginia
. This was before being acquired by McLean-based Capital One
, not after.
, BB&T
, SunTrust Banks
, and Wachovia
, and so emphasized its local nature and community involvement in its advertising. The bank used a caricature
portrayal of Benjamin Franklin
as its advertising mascot
, who repeated the tagline
The Leading Local Bank in its television commercials.
lawsuits for violations of the Truth in Lending Act
of 1968 involving as many as 7,000 mortgage borrowers. A federal district court ruled against the bank in January 2007, but the ruling was stayed pending appeal to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the federal district ruling in September, 2008. The bank also agreed to pay $16 million to settle a class action alleging it charged late fees and high interest rates to credit card
holders, although it denied wrongdoing.
Washington Metropolitan Area
The Washington Metropolitan Area is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The area includes all of the federal district and parts of the U.S...
. It was acquired by Capital One
Capital One
Capital One Financial Corp. is a U.S.-based bank holding company specializing in credit cards, home loans, auto loans, banking and savings products...
in 2009 and rebranded as Capital One Bank in 2010. Despite its name, Chevy Chase Bank was a federally chartered thrift
Savings and loan association
A savings and loan association , also known as a thrift, is a financial institution that specializes in accepting savings deposits and making mortgage and other loans...
regulated by the Office of Thrift Supervision
Office of Thrift Supervision
The Office of Thrift Supervision was a United States federal agency under the Department of the Treasury that charters, supervises, and regulates all federally- and state-chartered savings banks and savings and loans associations. It was created in 1989 as a renamed version of another federal agency...
, rather than a bank
Bank
A bank is a financial institution that serves as a financial intermediary. The term "bank" may refer to one of several related types of entities:...
. It was formerly held and controlled by the B. F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust; B. Francis Saul II, who founded the REIT and is the grandson of the founder of the B. F. Saul Company
B. F. Saul Company
B. F. Saul Company is a large, private real estate firm based in Bethesda, Maryland. Since its founding in 1892, B. F. Saul Company has been influential in local real estate affairs. In 2007, Washingtonian awarded B. F. Saul Company, along with five other companies, the title of Great Places to...
, served as its chairman.
History
The bank traces its history to 1892, when B. Francis Saul founded the B.F. Saul Company, a mortgage and real estate firm. On October 11, 1955, a savings and loan charter was granted to some Baltimore-area businessmen but never used. In 1969, the charter was purchased and the Chevy Chase Savings And Loan Association was established, taking the name from Chevy Chase, MarylandChevy Chase, Maryland
Chevy Chase is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland. In addition, a number of villages in the same area of Montgomery County include "Chevy Chase" in their names...
. Saul's grandson, B. Francis Saul II, opened the S&L on December 1, 1969, 50 years to the day after his grandfather, B. F. Saul opened Home Savings and Loan (subsequently merged into American Security Bank - now part of Bank of America). It became an FDIC
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is a United States government corporation created by the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933. It provides deposit insurance, which guarantees the safety of deposits in member banks, currently up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. , the FDIC insures deposits at...
-insured federal savings bank in 1985 and changed its name to Chevy Chase Savings Bank, F.S.B. accordingly the following year. It acquired the Standard Savings and Loan Association of Grundy, Virginia
Grundy, Virginia
Grundy is a town in Buchanan County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,105 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Buchanan County. The town is noted for its educational institutions and their role in the town's economic rebirth. In the past, the town served as a stopover for Union...
, in 1988.
It adopted its most recent name in 1994 and on January 16, 1996, moved its registration from Chevy Chase to McLean. It moved into its actual headquarters in Bethesda in 2001.
In 1995 it acquired the historic Alex. Brown & Sons Building
Alex. Brown & Sons Building
The Alex. Brown & Sons building, located at 135 East Baltimore Street in Baltimore, Maryland, served as the corporate headquarters during the 20th century for the banking firm Alex. Brown & Sons, which was the oldest banking firm in the United States when it was purchased by Bankers Trust in 1997. ...
in Baltimore, Maryland, which was renovated the following year and used for a branch office.
On December 4, 2008, Capital One
Capital One
Capital One Financial Corp. is a U.S.-based bank holding company specializing in credit cards, home loans, auto loans, banking and savings products...
announced it would be acquiring Chevy Chase Bank. The acquisition was completed on February 27, 2009. On Friday, September 10, 2010 at 7pm, Chevy Chase Bank shed its name, opening its doors on Monday, September 13, 2010 as Capital One Bank.
Business structure
The bank's core business was residential mortgages and consumer banking; its mortgage subsidiary, the B.F. Saul Mortgage Company, was one of the leading mortgage originators in the region.. As of December 31, 2007 it held $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
14.0 billion in deposits.
Chevy Chase Bank had more than 290 branches in Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, and the District of Columbia, and claimed to have the largest network of ATM
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
s in the Washington area.
According to ABA routing information it was based in Laurel, Maryland
Laurel, Maryland
Laurel is a city in northern Prince George's County, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County, Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. Incorporated in 1870, the city maintains a historic district including its Main Street...
, while the bank's headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
offices were in downtown Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
, at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and East-West Highway
Maryland Route 410
Maryland Route 410 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as East–West Highway, the highway runs from MD 355 in Bethesda east to Pennsy Drive in Landover Hills...
. According to its FDIC certificate, the firm was headquartered in McLean, Virginia
McLean, Virginia
McLean is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. The community had a total population of 48,115 as of the 2010 census....
. This was before being acquired by McLean-based Capital One
Capital One
Capital One Financial Corp. is a U.S.-based bank holding company specializing in credit cards, home loans, auto loans, banking and savings products...
, not after.
Competition
Its main competitors were the retail banking divisions of larger, supraregional companies such as Bank of AmericaBank of America
Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
, BB&T
BB&T
BB&T Corporation is an American bank with assets of $157 billion , offering full-service commercial and retail banking services along with other financial services like insurance, investments, retail brokerage, mortgage, corporate finance, consumer finance, payment services, international...
, SunTrust Banks
SunTrust Banks
SunTrust Banks, Inc., is an American bank holding company. The largest subsidiary is SunTrust Bank. It had US$172.7 billion in assets as of September 30, 2009...
, and Wachovia
Wachovia
Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States based on total assets...
, and so emphasized its local nature and community involvement in its advertising. The bank used a caricature
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
portrayal of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
as its advertising mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
, who repeated the tagline
Tagline
A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. The idea behind the concept is to create a memorable phrase that will sum up the tone and premise of a brand or product , or to reinforce the audience's memory of a product...
The Leading Local Bank in its television commercials.
Litigation
Chevy Chase Bank was the subject of two national class actionClass action
In law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...
lawsuits for violations of the Truth in Lending Act
Truth in Lending Act
The Truth in Lending Act of 1968 is United States federal law designed to promote the informed use of consumer credit, by requiring disclosures about its terms and cost to standardize the manner in which costs associated with borrowing are calculated and disclosed...
of 1968 involving as many as 7,000 mortgage borrowers. A federal district court ruled against the bank in January 2007, but the ruling was stayed pending appeal to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts:* Central District of Illinois* Northern District of Illinois...
. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the federal district ruling in September, 2008. The bank also agreed to pay $16 million to settle a class action alleging it charged late fees and high interest rates to credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
holders, although it denied wrongdoing.