The bank started with a capital of $100,000 and a surplus of $50,000. The bank was founded by a Jewish immigrant from Germany, Joseph S. Marcus, a former president of the Public Bank, also of Delancey Street. The bank started with the backing of several well-known financiers. Though the directors of Public Bank objected to the choice of name, arguing that "ignorant foreigners would believe that the United States government was interested in this bank and that it was a branch of the United States Treasury in Washington", the name was approved and the bank came into being. The use of such an appellation was outlawed in 1926 but did not apply retroactively.
Failed in 1931. The bank run on its Bronx branch is said to have started the collapse of banking during the Great Depression. On December 10, 1930, a large crowd gathered at the Southern Boulevard branch in the Bronx seeking to withdraw their money, and started what is usually considered the bank run that started the Great Depression (though there had already been a wave of bank runs in the southeastern part of the U.S., at least as early as November 1930). By the midday, a crowd of 20,000 to 25,000 people had gathered and had to be controlled by the police, and by the end of the day 2,500 to 3,000 depositors had withdrawn $2,000,000 from the branch. However, most of the 7,000 depositors who came to withdraw their money left their assets in the bank. One person stood in line for two hours to claim his $2 account balance.
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