America at 250, and the Story of the Nation's Oldest Community Bank
As America marks its 250th anniversary, This Month in Banking looks back at how banking grew up alongside the country — through the eyes of the institution that has been there for nearly all of it. Our guest is Ned Handy, Chairman and CEO of The Washington Trust Company, recognized as the oldest community bank in the nation.
Washington Trust opened its doors in Westerly, Rhode Island on August 22, 1800, just 24 years after the Declaration of Independence and nine years after the First Bank of the United States was established in Philadelphia. Local entrepreneurs wanted a bank close to home to serve the farming, fishing, and mill communities along the Pawcatuck River, rather than making the long trip by horse and wagon to Providence or New Haven. Its charter called the region "peculiarly fitted by nature" for industry, lacking only "those little assistances" that banks could give. Named for George Washington, the bank was the first to put his likeness on currency — 69 years before he appeared on the federal one-dollar bill.
Ned walks us through how Washington Trust endured the panics of the 1800s, the Civil War, two world wars, the Great Depression, and the Great Recession — and remained independent while many of its peers merged or failed. We trace how banking itself evolved over two centuries, from issuing bank notes and opening a savings department in 1854, to the first drive-up teller window, the first ATM, online banking, and today's digital tools, all while keeping the same focus on local decision-making and relationships.
We close by asking what 226 years of history teaches about the next 25 — and what it takes for a community bank to still be standing, and still independent, when the country turns 275.
