Greater Atlantic Bank (GAB) was an American

community bank A community bank is a depository institution that is typically locally owned and operated. Community banks tend to focus on the needs of the businesses and families where the bank holds branches and offices. Lending decisions are made by people w ...

. The bank was founded in May 1887 and was closed in December 2009. It was the first bank failure of the

Great Recession The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred from late 2007 into 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country (see map). At ...

and was the first bank failure in Virginia since 1993. On October 20, 2009, the bank had $203 million in assets and $179 million in deposits.

History

Greater Atlantic Bank was founded on May 27, 1887 as the Greater Baltimore Savings and Loan Association. On May 31, 1989, the Greater Baltimore Savings and Loan Association changed its name to Greater Atlantic Savings Bank and on April 20, 1998, the bank changed its name to Greater Atlantic Bank. On September 19, 1991, Greater Atlantic moved its headquarters from

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

to Rockville, Maryland and on September 23, 1999, the bank moved its headquarters from Rockville, Maryland to Reston,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

. On August 22, 2000, Greater Atlantic completed its acquisition of Dominion Savings Bank. On June 15, 2009, Greater Atlantic Financial Corp. agreed to purchase Greater Atlantic Bank. However, the deal fell through four times due to both companies not being able to secure approvals and conditions in order to complete the purchase. On December 4, 2009, Greater Atlantic was closed by the

Office of Thrift Supervision The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) was a United States federal agency under the Department of the Treasury that chartered, supervised, and regulated all federally chartered and state-chartered savings banks and savings and loans associatio ...

(OTS). Greater Atlantic's deposits were assumed by Sonabank and most of its assets were purchased by Sonabank. On December 5, 2009, all five of Greater Atlantic's former locations were reopened as branches of Sonabank and depositors of Greater Atlantic automatically became depositors of Sonabank. Sonabank entered into a loss-share agreement with the

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cr ...

(FDIC) on $145 million of Greater Atlantic's assets.

References

{{Reflist, 1 Banks established in 1887 Banks based in Virginia Defunct banks of the United States