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In July 2006, Mutual Bank and Security Federal Savings Bank jointly announced an agreement to merge their two community institutions. The combined bank, known as Mutual Bank, posts assets in excess of $250 million, and offers full-service banking at seven locations: Whitman, Brockton East Side, Brockton West Side, Carver, Falmouth, Halifax, and Hanson. Its main office and loan center reside at the Whitman Center location. An eighth branch is planned to open in Middleboro in early 2007.
As its name emphasizes, Mutual Bank is a mutual institution; the bank’s profits are added to its capital, to protect depositors’ funds. The two banks who have combined to create Mutual Bank have always been strong, sound and well-capitalized institutions.
The new senior management team is headed by Mutual Bank's former president Glen S. White as chief executive officer and chairman of the board, and Security's former president William J. Morse as president of the combined bank. Both leaders are committed to continuing a tradition of strength, mutuality, and community focus.
Today's Mutual Bank offers a wide variety of deposit and loan products to individuals and businesses throughout southeastern Massachusetts. Thanks to a dedicated management and staff, and a growing base of satisfied customers, Mutual Bank looks forward to continued growth and success.
Mutual Bank was formed in 1889 in Whitman, Massachusetts by a group of local businessmen. It was originally named Whitman Cooperative Bank. Ten years after its founding, assets were listed at $125,350. Officers at this period were A. S. Stetson, president; C. D. Nash, vice president; and George D. Soule, secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Soule owned a stationery-news store; later he expanded his entrepreneurship into insurance and served his community as selectman for a number of years.
As now, the Bank was then focused on home loans, and assets tripled in the ten years between 1899 and 1909 to $335,948.
"The Co-operative Bank system of Massachusetts is a grand success, and the Whitman Co-operative Bank is one of the most prosperous in the State. Not many other banks are paying 6% per annum on deposits." This quote, proudly stated on the front of annual reports, certainly bore truth in 1919 when over $1,000,000 in assets were realized. In the following decade, assets rose more than sevenfold.
In response to the national fiscal crisis of the 1930's, the Whitman Co-operative Bank became "federalized" and chartered in 1936 as the Mutual Federal Savings and Loan Association of Whitman.
During the 1960's, Mutual Federal Savings branched out, extending its banking services with a new location in the neighboring community of Hanson. The expansion proved worthwhile; assets soared between 1959 and 1969 from approximately $7 million to over $14 million. Thomas R. Browne became president of the bank during this period.
Between 1971 and 1977 branch expansion continued into nearby communities of Hanover, Halifax and Carver. Assets reach $33 million. Drive-up teller stations were opened in Whitman. In the following decade, the bank updated its name again, to Mutual Federal Savings Bank of Plymouth County. With the new title, the bank's expanded, regional focus was confirmed.
In 1989, Mutual Federal Savings celebrated its 100th anniversary. Assets had grown to $66 million, and the range of banking services had greatly expanded, to include:
- insured savings accounts
- money market accounts
- conventional home mortgages
- college loans
- individual retirement accounts
- Christmas Club savings
- home improvement loans
- night depository
- drive-in tellers
- 24-hour teller machines
- auto loans
- U.S. Savings Bonds
In 1990, under the guidance of bank president David Cogan, a major renovation and modernization of the bank's main office in Whitman Center was completed, marking the bank as the leading architectural landmark of the downtown commercial district. During the ensuing decade, additional facilities enhancements were made: the expansion of the Hanson office, and the construction of two new branches in Halifax and Carver. New services were introduced: Internet banking, debit cards, 24-hour telephone banking, and home equity lines of credit. In approximately 2001, the bank celebrated another milestone, upon reaching $100 million in assets.
Glen S. White assumed the presidency of the bank in 2004. The introduction of a new line of accounts and services, designed for local businesses, substantially broadened the scope of the bank's interests. In early 2006, the bank shortened its public name to Mutual Bank.
On November 19, 1877, the bank was chartered as the Security Co-operative Savings Fund and Loan Association in Brockton, Massachusetts. Thrift institutions like Security were founded throughout the 1800’s to encourage people of ordinary means to save, by offering a safe place for their savings, paying interest on the members’ funds and helping many members acquire their most significant asset, a home, by providing mortgage loans. Security Co-operative, like other co-operatives and savings banks, was a mutual organization, owned by its depositors.
Weathering the economic crises of 1897, 1907 and 1921, the market crash of 1929 and the “Great Depression” which followed, and several recessions since, the bank has continued to serve the community focusing on its specialty of home mortgage lending. In 1937, after sixty years of service, the bank converted to a Federal Savings and Loan Association in order to provide federal deposit insurance for members’ deposits. In addition to its historic main office in downtown Brockton, the bank established two branches in Brockton's newer commercial districts on the West Side and the East Side; to serve retired and vacationing customers, a branch was opened in Falmouth, Cape Cod. In 1989 Security converted from an association to a federal savings bank. Throughout the next two decades, Security Federal Savings Bank continued to provide local customers solid, reliable banking services with an emphasis on personal attention.
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