Anchor Bank WA history

Forty years later, in 1966, a third office was opened in the suburbs of Long Island, reflecting the shift in the bank's population of customers from urban Brooklyn to more rural areas.

In 1968, poised to begin a more dramatic expansion, the Bay Ridge Savings Bank changed its name to the Anchor Savings Bank.

In the fall of 1969, a year after changing its name, Anchor merged with another Brooklyn-based savings bank, the Bushwick Savings Bank, which had been chartered by the state of New York in the same year that the Bay Ridge Savings Bank was born.

In early 1982, Anchor expanded its New York operations beyond New York City for the first time, when the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Hamburg, based in upstate New York, became a part of the company.

At the end of September of 1983, Anchor acquired another bank in the New York area, when it merged with the Heritage Federal Savings and Loan Association of Huntington, New York.

In October of 1985, the company bought the First Federal Savings Bank of Brunswick, based in southern Georgia.

Having attained this impressive size, Anchor converted from a mutual savings and loan association into a publicly held company on April 1, 1987.

Anchor's financial condition worsened in 1989, as the entire savings and loan industry suffered a crisis and shakeout in which many banks failed.

In April of 1990, Anchor announced that it would take a $175 million loss in order to shed assets, including 68 more bank branches.

By June of 1992, these efforts had shown fruit, as Anchor was released from close regulatory supervision of its efforts to rebuild capital.

Large, has put its problems behind it so that the earnings will continue to grow.By Saul HansellMarch 10, 1993