Webster Bank
Since the 1930s, one bank has been serving the greater markets in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and some parts in New York with great passion and pleasure – the Webster Bank.
Webster Bank is operated by the Webster Financial Corporation. The Corporation is also the holding firm for Webster Insurance. Furthermore, Webster Bank holds Webster Business Credit Corporation, an asset related lending company, Budget Installment Corporation, a premium finance insurance firm, Center Capital Corporation, a business equipment financer, and HSA Bank, a provider of administrative, trustee services and health savings membership.
The Webster Bank headquarters are located in Waterbury, Connecticut. The company is lead by Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board – James C. Smith. Its current assets total to over $18 billion and its market capitalization amounts to $2.6 billion. The company is an employer of more than three thousand six hundred employees in more than one hundred fifty Webster Bank locations in Westchester County, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Webster has 308 automated teller machines. Webster Bank online services and telephone banking, to name a few, are carried out with utmost professionalism and personalized approach making the company one of the US’ 50 largest banking institutions.
The founder of the company goes by the name of Harold Webster Smith. Smith, who has a strong desire to assist his villagers in getting their own homes, borrowed an amount from his friends and family. Still on his 20s, Smith established the First Federal Savings of Waterbury in the year 1935. It became Waterbury’s source of affordable rates for home loan. His lending company flourished. The Smith legacy still lives on to this very today. The story of Smith and the heritage of Webster Bank is a story like no other.
Harold Smith was such a thrifty man. He managed his earnings properly and put more emphasis on helping people rather than gaining more profits. Three years later, Smith’s lending company was worth $1 million of assets. It was significant success in his time, considering that Connecticut has also had many banking institutions during that time.
In 1986 a major turning point in the company’s operation took place. The First Federal Savings Bank of Waterbury adapted stock ownership and a holding firm was created. A year later, Harold Webster Smith’s son, John C. Smith, took on his father’s seat and became the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. In the year 1995, Harold Webster Smith passed on the Chairmanship to John C. Smith. To honor the legacy of his father, John C. Smith would rename the company to Webster Bank.
In the year 1997, a new investment business line was added to the family creating the Webster Trust Company. On the following year, Webster made its first acquisition with the purchase of Eagle Bank in Bristol, Connecticut. By this time, the company’s size has grown to 100 branches. The company continued to flourish, and on that same year it also acquired Damman Insurance. Webster was the first firm in Connecticut to acquire an insurer.
2002 saw the signing in of Webster Bank to the New York Stock Exchange. The company used the symbol WBS.
Webster’s growth was unceasing. The company took a brave heart and explored new fields outside the Connecticut market. This was evident in Webster’s acquisition of a major bank in 2003. Webster bought the First Fed America Bancorp, Incorporated, owner of First Federal Savings Bank of America. The acquisition was completed in May of 2004.
The company continues to expand but Webster Bank loans and rates are still within reach. Despite the enormous success it obtained today, Webster Bank still bears that heart and heritage of a helpful Waterbury man who desired nothing but to help people.