Fremont Bank is a retail and commercial bank and California mortgage lender. Founded in 1964, Fremont Bank is one of the oldest independent family-owned and managed banks in the state. It has 20 branches
across the counties of
Alameda,
Contra Costa,
Santa Clara,
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
and
Monterey
Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...
with retail loan offices in
Sacramento
)
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, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
counties.
History
Fremont Bank was founded in 1964 by Morris Hyman, a
World War II veteran who came to the
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gove ...
with his family in 1945. Morris died in October 2005. His three children now manage Fremont Bank.
In 1968, Fremont Bank launched one of the first iterations of Saturday banking. In the late 1980s, Fremont Bank developed the “No Closing Cost” Loan Program which reduced the borrowers' costs of
refinancing
Refinancing is the replacement of an existing debt obligation with another debt obligation under a different term and interest rate. The terms and conditions of refinancing may vary widely by country, province, or state, based on several economic ...
their
mortgage
A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any p ...
with fees refunded at closing. These fees were a direct result of changes in mortgage lending practices that involved
title insurance
Title insurance is a form of indemnity insurance predominantly found in the United States and Canada which insures against financial loss from defects in title to real property and from the invalidity or unenforceability of mortgage loans. Unlike ...
policies, appraisals,
escrow services, and other changes that affected mortgage lending. The "No Closing Cost" loan was charged at a slightly higher rate and sold in the secondary market at a price high enough to cover the closing costs and bank overhead while generating a profit for the bank.
Community efforts
“You find out what someone needs and you give it" – Morris Hyman.
The ’’Fremont Bank Foundation’’ (FBF) was established in 1995 under the direction of Fremont Bank's late founder, Morris Hyman, and his late wife, Alvirda. FBF is an independent, private, grant making foundation that is solely funded by Fremont Bank. Formed with an initial investment of $20,000, the Foundation now receives a significant percentage of Fremont Bank's pre-tax income each year. These funds allow Fremont Bank to fund local nonprofit organizations. Their greatest contribution to date has been $3,800,000 for a new critical care facility at Washington Hospital in Fremont.
References
External links
*http://www.fremontbank.com
{{Authority control
Banks based in California
Companies based in Fremont, California