Marine Midland Bank

Marine Midland Bank was an American bank formerly headquartered in Buffalo, New York, with several hundred branches throughout the state of New York, Pennsylvania and two branches located in Seattle, Washington. The bank was founded in 1850 as Marine Bank and the company was relaunched as Marine Midland Corporation in 1929. The regional banks in New York state and Seattle were unified under the Marine Midland name in 1976. As of 1981, it was the 13th largest bank in the United States.

The bank was acquired by HSBC in 1980 and changed its name to HSBC Bank USA in 1999, while its branches were extended to Pennsylvania in 1998 through the acquisition of First Commercial Bank of Philadelphia. As a result of several transactions since the turn of the millennium, much of what was once Marine Midland is now part of KeyBank with the exception of Downstate New York and Pennsylvania, that is now part of Citizens Bank. Branches in Seattle are part of Cathay Bank.

Marine Midland was founded as Marine Bank, a state-chartered bank, on July 10, 1850, with capital of $170,000. It was founded by eight men from across New York—General James S. Wadsworth of Geneseo, J. P. Beekman of Kinderhook, New York, John Arnot of Elmira, John Magee and Constant Cook of Bath, William R. Gwinn of Medina, and George Palmer and James M. Ganson of Buffalo. Both Palmer and Wadsworth had railroad connections. The two had financial interests in and served as directors of the Attica and Hornell Railroad, while Palmer had links also with the Buffalo and State Line Railroad. Palmer was elected president and Ganson was named cashier.

The new institution was called Marine Bank because much of its early business depended on the economic vitality of Buffalo's lakefronts and riverfronts. Indeed, it was intended to finance the new shipping trade on the Great Lakes. From the first day it opened its doors on August 27 at 79 Main Street, Marine was the prominent bank for the thriving grain and milling industry on the waterfront. However, the diverse geographic base of the bank's eight founders indicated that they intended to expand across New York.

By the start of the 20th century, Marine Bank began to expand through merger. In 1897 it absorbed the American Exchange Bank, and in 1902 it acquired the Buffalo Commercial Bank. That same year it became a national bank and changed its name to Marine National Bank of Buffalo under president Stephen Merrell Clement.

The next acquisition came in 1913 when Marine absorbed Columbia National Bank. That same year, the bank built a new 17-story office building in Buffalo known as the Marine Midland Trust Company Building.

Six years later, Bankers Trust was acquired. Marine chose to become a state bank again as Marine Trust Company of Buffalo. By the mid-1930s, Marine had acquired eight other banks.

Marine had also taken the lead in the formation of Marine Midland Corporation, a holding company for 17 affiliated banks throughout New York. That first multibank holding company in the state was formed October 4, 1929. 20 days later would be the Wall Street crash of 1929.