AMBLER PA – Ambler Savings Bank, headquartered in Ambler with branch offices in Limerick, Bally, and Fairview Village, observes its 150th anniversary in 2024. Several celebratory events are planned by the bank during the remainder of the year, and the first got under way Wednesday (April 17, 2024).
More than 120 guests – its customers, area residents, and local government officials – were on hand at the bank’s main office to honor the achievement.
Among the dignitaries were state 12th District Sen. Maria Collett, Montgomery County Commissioner Tom DiBello, Ambler Mayor Jeanne Sorg; Rafia Razzak, representing state 151st District Rep. Melissa Cerrato; and Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers President Kevin Shivers.
Collett presented the bank with a Senate proclamation acknowledging its 150 years of service, and said she was “honored to share this incredible moment” with the bank and community. Sorg said Ambler Borough is “is thankful for the (bank’s) long-standing support” of community needs “from Main Street festivals to police and fire departments.”
Ambler Savings Bank was chartered in 1874 to provide financing for local residents to purchase and build homes. Well before the town was named Ambler, the bank provided its communities with loans, deposit accounts, and philanthropic assistance.
Ambler Main Street President Bob King, who also works as the bank’s facilities manager, described the bank as “a leader of the pack” in its industry. In 1874, it was the first association to be granted a state charter in Montgomery County. In 1939, before incorporation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, it gave customers assurance in the safety of their savings by insuring accounts valued up to $5,000.
More celebrations planned
Today, bank officials noted, the institution has grown to employ 60 people across four branches and offices in three retirement centers within Montgomery and Berks counties. It offers a range of business and personal banking solutions, delivered with personalized service and using the latest digital banking tools.
The bank remains independent under the governance of a cooperative Board of Trustees, and supports local non-profit organizations dealing with education, affordable housing, social services, and community development. Those are among many reasons the bank has remained successful for so long, President and CEO Roger Zacharia said.
“It’s not every day that you turn 150!,” the bank’s website notes. To share its celebration with its communities, additional activities are planned later during the year. They include the Ambler First Friday event on June 7 that will offer free activities and a photo booth in front of the bank’s headquarters on Butler Avenue.
Photo provided to Travels With The Post by Ambler Savings Bank
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