Historic National Iron Bank expands
When Steven Cornell started in the banking industry more than three decades ago, there were over 100 banks with headquarters in Connecticut.
Now, according to the Connecticut Department of Banking, there are 25 state-chartered banks based here and another seven nationally chartered financial institutions that headquartered in the Nutmeg State. Cornell is president and chief executive officer of Salisburybased National Iron Bank, where he has worked for the last 30 years, the last 10 as president and chief executive officer.
National Iron will celebrate its 175th anniversary by opening its a new branch in Litchfield in the Village Green Plaza. Bank officials filed an application with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency earlier this month.
“We have a loan office there and it has done pretty well with home mortgages and home equity loans,” he said. “A lot people tell us if you had a branch, I’d do all my banking here. Litchfield is similar to the other towns we serve: Small, rural communities where people still want to see bricks and mortar.”
Serving the local community takes many forms, Cornell said, whether it’s donating to local environmental groups or sponsoring the local Little League team.
The comment period for National Iron’s branch application request ends Aug. 14, according to the filing with the OCC, which is an independent bureau of the U.S. Treasury.
National Iron has stockholders, according to Cornell, but “the stock is tightly held.”
“We’re a community bank, we remember who our customers are and reinvest back into the local community,” he said.
When pandemic hit and the federal government responded by with the Paycheck Protection Program, National Iron did over $20 million worth of the forgivable loans, according to Cornell.
“A lot of that went to mom and pop businesses, including a lot of restaurants,” he said.
John Carusone, president of the Bank Analysis Center, a Hartford-based industry consulting firm, said National Iron is “a boutique bank that is focused on serving a small geographic area.”
“They are something of an anachronism and I don’t mean that in a bad way,” Carusone said. “They are well-run and there are plenty of banks that would be interested in acquiring them if their stock wasn’t so closely held.”
National Iron was founded in 1847, the same year Samuel Colt sold his first revolver to the U.S. government. Its name comes from Salisbury’s historic role smelting iron for use in U.S. armaments.
“We’re one of the oldest private banks in the country,” Cornell said.
While Colt was making a name for himself in Hartford, many of the Housatonic River Valley in northwest Connecticut worked in ore beds or in one of the many iron works in the area. Others were farmers.
To serve these businesses and others, National Iron opened on Oct. 11, 1847 with assets of $193,725.
The Civil War started 14 years later and the National Banking Act was adopted in 1864 to help finance it. National Iron became a federally chartered bank on July 5, 1865.