Bank leaders visit Albany to share history

Established by former Albany resident Alexander Hamilton in NYC nearly 240 years ago

ALBANY — Leaders of an historic bank founded by onetime Albany resident Alexander Hamilton visited the Capitol on Wednesday to share memorabilia and stories of their institution’s past with state lawmakers.

Hamilton, who fought in the American Revolutionary War and helped write the Constitution, is one of the country’s founding fathers and established the nation’s oldest continuously running bank in New York City nearly 240 years ago. Officials with the Bank of New York Mellon on Wednesday presented legislators with receipts, including the original petition to charter the bank in 1784 that kicked off a highly partisan battle in the New York Assembly and Senate at the time.

Jayee Koffey, global head of enterprise execution and chief corporate affairs officer with BNY Mellon, said the push to celebrate the bank’s upcoming “Founder’s Day” in Albany, in part, represents a new push for their partnering with the state as well as an effort to highlight the company’s ongoing presence in New York.

The bank is headquartered in New York City and is regarded as one of the most influential large banks in the country, providing financial services for institutions and corporations. It has garnered a reputation for weathering numerous economic downturns in recent decades, as well as the fallout from the crash of two major banks this year. Those collapses included New Yorkbased Signature Bank, which recorded the third largest failure in U.S. banking history.

“There’s no policy agenda — it’s really about spending time and getting to know what’s important on the strategic agenda of the public sector, and seeing how we, as America’s oldest bank, can be helpful under the theme of vibrant communities, a vibrant ecosystem for New York,” Koffey said.

The bank provides some services for key unions in New York, Koffey said. It also helps manage several pension funds.

Among the rest of the artifacts shown to legislators was a miniature portrait of Hamilton that his widow and famous Albany resident Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton once called the most accurate likeness of the politician and financier.

Koffey said BNY Mellon has more than two centuries’ worth of similar documents and heirlooms related to the bank’s founding and Hamilton’s personal life — including a wedding clock, which was a popular gift in that era. Other artifacts were on display for more legislators during a reception later Wednesday.

“There are many, many ways for us to be helpful to the public, as well as the private sector in New York, and I’m hopeful that we can do more,” Koffey said.

BNY Mellon made headlines last year after New York’s financial regulator approved its petition to begin receiving cryptocurrency assets and provide bookkeeping services for those assets along with more traditional portfolios. The move marked a shifting attitude toward crypocurrency by traditional banks.