Garden State National Bank ("Garden State") was a mid-size commercial bank located in northern New Jersey that enjoyed success in the increasingly wealthy New Jersey suburbs of New York City during the 1970s. The significant media coverage it received during that period was more due to the various M&A transactions considered by its colorful CEO,
Charles A. Agemian and by its majority investor,
Warner Communications
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
. It was ultimately subsumed into Fidelity Union Bancorporation of Newark (which later became part of Wachovia) in 1980.
History
Garden State began business in 1889 under the name The Hackensack Bank (a state bank) and became a national bank in 1901. It subsequently merged into the Hackensack Trust Company (a state bank) . It was again converted into a national bank in 1966. The name of the bank was changed from the Hackensack Trust Company, N.A. to Garden State National Bank in 1970. Garden State and the North Jersey National Bank were consolidated in 1971. In December 1975, Garden State acquired the four offices of the Hardyston National Bank of Hamburg, in Sussex County, New Jersey, and in August 1977, acquired three offices of Shore National Bank, in Ocean County, New Jersey. At the time of its acquisition by Fidelity Union Bancorporation of Newark, Garden State's offices were located at 10 Forest Avenue in
Paramus
Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...
, New Jersey.
Agemian was named chairman and chief executive officer of Hackensack Trust Corp. on January 1, 1970, at the urging of
Steve Ross (Time Warner CEO)
Steven Jay Ross (born Steven Jay Rechnitz; April 5, 1927 – December 20, 1992) was an American businessman and CEO of Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery), Warner Communications, and Kinney National Services, Inc. Ross is also known for p ...
, then chairman of Kinney Services Inc., which was the bank's majority shareholder. Kinney National Company later merged with Warner Bros. to become
Warner Communications
Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States.
It was originally established in 1972 by ...
.
Shortly after taking over, Mr. Agemian changed the bank's name to Garden State National Bank, and, a year later, merged with North Jersey National Bank of Hudson County. Because of the Federal Bank Holding Corporation Act, Warner was forced to divest its stake in the Garden State National Bank. After an initial divestiture attempt was derailed by a dissident board member,
William A. Conway, who claimed that it allowed Warner Communications to exit at a profit at the expense of certain minority shareholders, Garden State ultimately merged in 1980 with Fidelity Union Bancorporation of Newark. This transaction required Mr. Agemian's resignation from the Warner Communications board so he could continue as chairman and chief executive officer of Garden State.
The remnants of Garden State National Bank have changed hands through a series of mergers that began in 1984. Fidelity Union Bancorporation merged with First National Bank of New Jersey, and the combined company became known as First Fidelity Bank the next year. That company would later merge with
First Union
First Union Corporation was a bank holding company that provided commercial and retail banking services in eleven states in the eastern U.S. First Union also provided various other financial services, including mortgage banking, credit card, inv ...
, which in turn was acquired by
Wachovia
Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asse ...
, which was sold to
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
after the 2008 financial crisis.
References
{{Wells Fargo
Defunct banks of the United States
Banks established in 1889
Banks disestablished in 1980
1889 establishments in New Jersey