Carver Federal Savings Bank, opened under the leadership of M. Moran Weston in 1948, is the "largest black-owned financial institution" in the United States.[2]RegusWachovia Global Equity Holding Group & Carver Bancorp, Inc. is its holding company.[3]
The bank applied for a federal charter "after the state had denied it a charter," and opened in a simple storefront in 1948.[2] Carver Federal Savings Bank was not the first bank named after George Washington Carver. Four years earlier an unrelated bank, Carver Savings and Loan Association, opened in Omaha, Nebraska. Neither of these were the first Black-owned American bank. Carver Federal Savings, however, is the largest and oldest continually Black-operated U.S. bank.
Founding Officers, Carver Federal Savings & Loan Association, New York City, 1948.
M. Moran Weston already had earlier experience as the 1945-founder of a credit union, and, for Carver, had a supporting team of 14.[2][5]
Carver Federal Savings Bank served multiple purposes:
to meet the financial services needs of African- and Caribbean-Americans in New York City
to help black homeowners obtain first mortgages
to train Blacks for careers in the banking professions in New York for the first time[2]
along with Carver co-founder Joseph E. Davis, it hired future leaders, such as Richard T. Greene Sr., "who for 30 years was the president and a director."[6]
The bank began operations at 53 West 125th StreetinHarlem, New York in 1948. On November 5, of that year, Carver Federal Savings and Loan Association received a federal bank charter.[citation needed] Its first branch opened on January 5, 1949, at 53 West 125th Street.[7]
In July 1982, Carver merged with Allied Federal Bank. It became a federal savings bank and changed its name to Carver Federal Savings Bank in 1986.
In 1999 the bank "headed off" an attempt by a Boston-based bank to take it over.[3] The bank expanded in 2004 by acquiring Independence Federal Savings Bank.[9]
Carver Bank is headquartered in the Lee Building[10] at 1825 Park AvenueinHarlem, New York.[11] Its closest branch is at the location of its previous headquarters, a four-story building at 75 West 125th Street, New York, which it owned and operated since 1956. The bank vacated the building between October 1992 and March 1996, after it was destroyed by an electrical fire.[6][7] In 2018, it was sold by the bank.[12]
From 1948 to 1968, Carver was led by Joseph E. Davis, its first President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In 1970, Richard Greene was appointed president and CEO and led the bank for the next 25 years. In 1995, Thomas Clark Jr. was appointed director, President, succeeding Greene.[13] In April 1999, Carver's Board of Directors appointed Deborah C. Wright as its second female President and CEO. She retired on December 31, 2014. Effective January 1, 2015 Michael T. Pugh, the President and Chief Operating Officer succeeded Wright as CEO.[1][14]
