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Great Lakes Bancorp Business Information, Profile, and History

401 East Liberty Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
U.S.A.

History of Great Lakes Bancorp

Great Lakes Bancorp is the second largest savings bank in Michigan, operating 46 branches statewide and in northern Ohio. Specializing in residential mortgages, Great Lakes also offers its customers loans for construction and commercial business as well as checking services and savings plans.

Great Lakes Bancorp began late in the nineteenth century as a savings and loan association. The concept of a savings and loan had originated in 1831 when a "building club" was formed in Philadelphia for the purpose of helping its members purchase homes through loans made from membership dues. The idea eventually gained popularity nationwide, and the savings and loan, or thrift industry, was founded. By the late 1890s, nearly 5,000 associations were operating in the United States with assets of around $500 million.

Great Lakes traces its origins to the establishment of the Huron Valley Building and Savings Association. The association received its charter from the State of Michigan after generating start-up capital of $50,000, and opened for business in January 1891. Located in two rented rooms in Ann Arbor's municipal courthouse, Huron Valley Building and Savings initially consisted of one employee, John Miner, who for a salary of $11 per month acted as secretary and teller. The association was supervised and managed by H. H. Herbst.

The association experienced steady growth throughout its first 30 years. During World War I, the economy boomed and resulted in dramatic increases in the average American standard of living and income. As the housing industry experienced gains, so did the thrift industry. By 1920 Huron Valley's assets had reached $200,000, and five years later the association was able to move from the courthouse into a brand new office building in downtown Ann Arbor. Assets increased to over $1 million in 1926, and by the end of the decade, just before the stock market crash in October 1929, Huron Valley's assets exceeded $2 million. Also that year, H. H. Herbst died and was succeeded by William L. Walz, Ann Arbor's mayor since 1909 and the first person to hold the title of president at Huron Valley. During his 12-year term, Walz rose to become one of the most respected bankers in Michigan, serving as a top elected official in the Michigan Banking Association and representing the state at conferences in Washington, D.C.

Like Michigan's banks, Huron Valley posted losses during the Great Depression. Unlike the banks, however, it was not forced to close during the bank holidays declared in 1932 by Michigan's Governor Comstock, and early the following year by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Customers of the building and savings during this time were neither limited as to the amount of money they could withdraw nor forced to do their banking business on certain days. Thus, despite the unstable economic outlook, the association remained solvent, and, in fact, acquired a local competitor, the Ann Arbor Building and Loan Association, in what may have been the first merger in the thrift industry.

After the Depression, legislation was enacted to help the country recover economically and protect financial institutions. In 1935 the Banking Act was passed, creating, among other things, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), which would allow thrifts to insure their depositor's moneys. As a provision of the Banking Act, savings and loans were able to apply for federal charters, and federal insurance was available to them as long as the majority of the loans they extended to customers were used for mortgages.

In 1939, after receiving its federal charter, the Ann Arbor Building and Loan Association was renamed Ann Arbor Federal Savings, a name that management felt would better represent its services and the community, as well as capitalize on the increasing national recognition of the University of Michigan. Over the next few years, Ann Arbor Federal Savings underwent a period of rapid growth. The country's housing industry boomed again during and shortly after World War II, and, holding strictly to its business of accepting deposits and extending long-term mortgage loans, the company thrived. In 1940 its assets were around $4 million and a major renovation and expansion of the bank's building was undertaken. The following year Walz died, and his son, William C. Walz, who had been an employee and member of the board at Ann Arbor Federal Savings, assumed the presidency. He remained in that position for 28 years, as the company continued to prosper.

On April 1, 1978, the company merged with First Federal Savings of Battle Creek to form Great Lakes Federal Savings. The bank regards this merger as one of the most significant, and profitable, in its history, as the combined assets of the two savings institutions amounted to over $678 million.

The company's corporate activity over the next ten years consisted primarily of acquisitions and mergers. In 1981 it acquired East Lansing's First State Savings and Loan Association, and its assets rose to $900 million. The following year, after a merger with United Federal Savings of Saginaw, Great Lakes Federal became Michigan's third largest savings and loan association, with assets totaling $1.5 billion. It had now expanded its business to include most of Michigan, excepting only the state's Upper Peninsula and the Detroit area.

The company was restructured in 1983, changing its status from that of a mutual association owned by its depositors to a corporation whose stock was traded publicly. After decades of national regulation, at this time interest rate requirements were lifted by the U. S. Congress, encouraging competition between savings and loans and banks. While banks generally benefitted from the deregulation, the thrift industry was forced to lower interest drastically to compete. In addition to home mortgages and deposits then, Great Lakes Federal, like most other savings and loans, began offering a broader range of products and services to its customers. These included automobile and commercial loans as well as stock and bond mutual funds, annuities, tax-advantaged municipal funds, and three-month certificates of deposit. In 1987, Great Lakes Federal received permission from its shareholders to again rename the company, this time to Great Lakes Bancorp, which was, as Detroit News reporter Eric Starkman observed, "a name [that] sounds decidedly more like a bank." A subsidiary, Great Lakes Mortgage Company, was also formed in 1987.

The following year Great Lakes Bancorp made several more acquisitions. In addition to the deposits of Regency Savings Bank, it acquired Security Savings of Indianapolis, which added six Indiana branches to Great Lakes Bancorp's holdings and represented the company's first venture outside of Michigan. In March of 1989 Dollar Federal Savings of Hamilton, Ohio, was acquired, and Great Lakes Bancorp became Michigan's second largest savings bank with assets exceeding $3 billion from its 57 branches.

As the company became larger, Great Lakes management focused on maintaining the quality of service it had offered as a smaller, community financial institution. In an attempt to create more personalized service, five regional presidents were appointed and many of management's decisions were decentralized. Helping to foster good relations with the bank's customers, the new presidents were assigned to oversee all aspects of their regions' retail lending, retail banking, and new business development. In a statement quoted in the Ann Arbor News, Chairperson Roy E. Weber noted that while other banks consolidated, becoming large impersonal institutions, Great Lakes strove to become more "flexible to pursue a successful community banking strategy in [a] competitive environment."

In 1991 the company purchased First Federal of Michigan's Ann Arbor branch. Acquisitions slowed, however, when a three-year analysis of its branch system revealed that the company ought to refocus on its primary market areas: Ann Arbor, Saginaw, and Battle Creek. After selling off four of its branches, by the end of the year Great Lakes maintained 53 branches. Its assets for 1991 were recorded at $3.3 billion. Further refining of the bank's portfolio resulted in 44 branches in four main market areas: Saginaw, Battle Creek, Ann Arbor, and the northern Cincinnati region of Butler County.

Strengthening its links to the communities it served, broadening its product lines, and improving the returns on shareholders' investments became priorities for the firm. Maintaining high quality service through a personal approach should eventually draw more customers than larger more impersonal banking corporations. Great Lakes Bancorp seemed well positioned to maintain its competitive status in future years.

Principal Subsidiaries: Great Lakes Mortgage Company; Security First Corporation; GLB Service Corporation II; 401 Service Corporation.

Related information about Great Lakes

The largest group of freshwater lakes in the world, in C North America, on the Canada窶填SA border; drained by the St Lawrence R; consists of Lakes Superior, Michigan (the only one entirely in the USA), Huron, Erie, Ontario; sometimes L St Clair is included; water surface c.245 300 kmツイ/94 700 sq mi, c.87 270 kmツイ/33 700 sq mi in Canada; connected by navigable straits and canals (St Mary's R and the Soo Canals, Strait of Mackinac, St Clair R and Lake, Detroit R, Niagara R, Welland Canal and the St Lawrence R and Seaway), giving the lakes access to each other and to the Atlantic Ocean; used (May窶泥ec) for an enormous volume of coal, ore, grain, and other products; water pollution a recent problem.

For the African lakes, see African Great Lakes. For other uses of this term, see Great Lakes (disambiguation).

The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes in North America on or near the Canada-United States border.

Lakes



The Great Lakes are:

  • Lake Superior (the largest by volume and deepest, larger than Scotland or South Carolina)
  • Lake Michigan (the second-largest by volume and third-largest by area; Considered together, Michigan-Huron would be larger in surface area than Lake Superior, but smaller in total water volume.

    A much smaller sixth lake, Lake St. Clair, is part of the Great Lakes system between Lake Huron and Lake Erie, but is not considered one of the "Great Lakes." The system also includes the rivers that connect the lakes: St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, the St. Clair River between Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, and the Niagara River and Niagara Falls, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. (Lake Michigan is connected to Lake Huron through the Straits of Mackinac.) Large islands and a peninsula divides Lake Huron into the lake proper and Georgian Bay.

    The lakes are bounded by Ontario (all of the lakes but Michigan), Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan (all but Ontario), Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. The Saint Lawrence River, which marks the same international border for a portion of its course, is a primary outlet of these interconnected lakes, and flows through Quebec and past the Gaspテゥ Peninsula to the northern Atlantic Ocean.

    Sprinkled throughout the lakes are the approximately 35,000 Great Lakes islands, including Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, the largest island in any inland body of water, and Isle Royale in Lake Superior, the largest island in the largest lake (each island large enough to itself contain multiple lakes).

    Today, 20 percent of the world?s fresh surface water is contained in the five great lakes: 5,473 cubic miles (22,812 kmツウ), or 6 quadrillion gallons (22.81 quadrillion litres) in all. larger than the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire combined.

    The Saint Lawrence Seaway and Great Lakes Waterway opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going vessels. However the move to wider ocean-going container ships - which do not fit through the locks on these routes - has limited shipping on the lakes. There are some icebreakers that operate on the lakes.

    The lakes have an effect on weather in the region, known as lake effect. clear:both;">


    Relative elevations, average depths, maximum depths, and volumes of the Great Lakes.


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    $maxdepth at:-732 text:"1,332 ft (406 m)"
    
 

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    Notes:
    		 The area of each rectangle is proportionate to the volume of each lake. All measurements at Low Water Datum.
    Source:
    		 EPA's Great Lakes Atlas: Factsheet #1.

    Geologic pre-history

    The Great Lakes were formed at the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, when the Laurentide ice sheet receded. When this happened, the glaciers left behind a large amount of meltwater (see Lake Agassiz) which filled up the basins that the glaciers had carved, thus creating the Great Lakes as we know them today. Because of the uneven nature of glacier erosion, some higher hills became Great Lakes islands. The Niagara Escarpment follows the contour of the Great Lakes between New York and Wisconsin -- Herbert Simon called this escarpment the spinal cord of my native land.

    Economy

    The lakes are extensively used for transport, though cargo traffic has decreased considerably in recent years. The Great Lakes Waterway makes each of the lakes accessible.

    During settlement, the Great Lakes and its rivers were the only practical means of moving people and freight. (See Edmund Fitzgerald and Le Griffon.) Barges from middle North America were able to reach the Atlantic Ocean from the Great Lakes when the Erie Canal opened in 1825. By 1848, with the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal at Chicago, direct access to the Mississippi River was possible from the lakes. Since many immigrants settled for a time in New England before moving westward, many areas on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes also have a New England feel, especially in home styles and accent.

    Since general freight these days is transported by railroads and trucks (lorries), domestic ships mostly move bulk cargoes, such as iron ore and its derivatives, coal and limestone for the steel industry. Because of the location of the coal fields in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the general northeast track of the Appalachian Mountains, railroads naturally developed shipping routes that went due north to ports such as Erie, Pennsylvania and Ashtabula, Ohio.

    Because the lake maritime community largely developed independently, it has its own language. Foreign boats are known as salties.

    One of the more common sights on the lakes is the 1,000 by 105-foot (305 by 32-m), 60,000 U.S. long tons (61,000 metric tonnes) self-unloader.

    Modern economy

    The Great Lakes are used as a major mode of transport for bulk goods. The brigantine Le Griffon, which was commissioned by Renテゥ Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was built at Cayuga Creek, near the southern end of the Niagara River, to become the first sailing ship to travel the upper Great Lakes on August 7, 1679.

    In 2002, 162 million net tons of dry bulk cargo was moved on the Lakes. A few small cruise ships operate on the Great Lakes including a couple of sailing ships. Sport fishing, commercial fishing, and Native American fishing represent a US$4 billion a year industry with salmon, whitefish, smelt, lake trout, and walleye being major catches.

    The Great Lakes are used to supply drinking water to tens of millions of people in bordering areas.

    Passenger traffic

    Several ferries operate on the Great Lakes to carry passengers to various islands, including Isle Royale, Pelee Island, Mackinac Island, Beaver Island, both Bois Blanc Islands, Kelleys Island, South Bass Island, North Manitou Island, South Manitou Island, Harsens Island, Manitoulin Island, and the Toronto Islands. As of 2005, three car ferry services cross the Great Lakes: a steamer across Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin; a high speed catamaran on a second Lake Michigan route from Milwaukee to Muskegon, Michigan. An international ferry across Lake Ontario from Rochester, New York to Toronto ran during the summer of 2004, but is no longer in operation. There are parts where no land is visible because of the immense size of the Lakes: thus they are sometimes referred to as inland seas.

    Storms and reefs are a common threat, and many thousands of ships have sunk in these waters. The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 became the worst Great Lakes storm on record: at least 12 ships sank, and 31 more were stranded on rocks and beaches. USS Freedom (LCS-1) is newest warship to be built on the Great Lakes. The Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 limits the number of armed vessels permitted on the Great Lakes.

    The greatest concentration of these wrecks lies near Thunder Bay (Michigan), beneath Lake Huron, near the point where eastbound and westbound shipping lanes converge. Today there is a U.S. NOAA Marine Archeology Research Station located in the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

    Invasive species

    The Great Lakes have been hit economically by various invasive species, namely the sea lamprey, Quagga mussel, and zebra mussel. An electric fence has been set up across the mouth of the Great Lakes in order to keep an invasive species of Asian carp out of the area. Some water is diverted through the Chicago River to operate the Illinois Waterway but the flow is limited by treaty. Under the U.S. "Water Resources Development Act"www.ohiodnr.com/water/planing/greatlksgov/fedstatut.htm, diversions of water from the Great Lakes basin requires the approval of all eight Great Lakes governors, which rarely occurs. In 1998, the Canadian company Nova Group won approval from the Province of Ontario to withdraw 158,000,000 US gallons (600,000 mツウ) of Lake Superior water annually to ship by tanker to Asian countries. Since that time, the eight Great Lakes Governors and the Premiers of Ontario and Quebec have negotiated the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Sustainable Water Resources Agreement www.cglg.org/projects/water/docs/12-13-05/Great_Lakes-St_Lawrence_River_Basin_Sustainable_Water_Resources_Agreement.pdf and the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact www.cglg.org/projects/water/docs/12-13-05/Great_Lakes-St_Lawrence_River_Basin_Water_Resources_Compact.pdf that would prevent most future diversion proposals and all long-distance ones.

    Restoration

    In the U.S. Congress, the Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_bills&docid=f:h5100ih.txt.pdf puts into practice priority recommendations of a $20 billion Great Lakes clean-up plan released in December as part of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration www.glrc.us, a planning process established by President Bush in 2004. The Great Lakes Collaboration Implementation Act would:

    ?Stop the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species by enacting a comprehensive national program.
    ?Prevent the Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes by authorizing the Corps of Engineers to maintain and operate the dispersal barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, and prohibit the importation and sale of Asian carp.
    ?Restore fish and wildlife habitat by reauthorizing the Great Lakes Fish & Wildlife Restoration Act at $20 million.
    ?Prevent sewage contamination by reauthorizing the State Revolving Loan Fund and provide $20 billion over five years to assist communities nationally with improving their wastewater infrastructure.
    ?Clean up contaminated sediment under the Great Lakes Legacy Act by authorizing $150 million per year.
    ?Phase out mercury in products by establishing a new grant program and improving existing research programs.
    ?Coordinate and improve Great Lakes programs by establishing the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force and the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration process.

    The Healing Our Waters(R) - Great Lakes Coalition www.restorethelakes.org has formed to help groups and citizens across the United States advocate for restoring the health of the Great Lakes.

    Additions to the Five Great Lakes

    Lake Champlain on the border between upstate New York and northwestern Vermont briefly became labelled by the U.S. government as the sixth "Great Lake of the United States" on March 6, 1998, when President Clinton signed Senate Bill 927. This bill, which reauthorized the National Sea Grant Program, contained a line penned by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) declaring Lake Champlain to be a Great Lake. The claim was viewed with some amusement by other countries, particularly in the Canadian media as many Canadians were originally unfamiliar with the lake's existence (despite its role in the War of 1812) and the lake is small compared to other Canadian lakes (such as Great Bear Lake which has over 27x more surface area). Following a small uproar (and several New York Times articles), the Great Lake status was rescinded on March 24 (although Vermont universities continue to receive funds to monitor and study the lake).

    Similarly, there has been interest in making Lake St. Clair a Great Lake. According to the bi-national (U.S. and Canadian) resource book, The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, "the largest Great Lakes fish harvests were recorded in 1889 and 1899 at some 67,000 tonnes (147 million pounds)," though the beginning of environmental impacts on the fish can be traced back nearly a century prior to those years.

    By 1801, New York legislators found it necessary to pass regulations curtailing obstructions to the natural migrations of Atlantic salmon from Lake Erie into their spawning channels. In the development of ecological problems in the Great Lakes, it was the influx of parasitic lamprey populations after the development of the Erie Canal and the much later Welland Canal that led to the two federal governments attempting to work together ? (expanses of lake bed covered by various combinations of such substances as solvents, wood preservatives, coal tar, and metals) found in Lake Superior, the St. Clair River, and other portions of the Great Lakes region.

    According to the authoritative bi-national source The Great Lakes: An Environmental Atlas and Resource Book, "Only pockets remain of the once large commercial fishery." Marie, Michigan
  • Marquette, Michigan
  • Houghton, Michigan

Lake Michigan

  • Green Bay, Wisconsin
  • Manitowoc, Wisconsin
  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • Racine, Wisconsin
  • Kenosha, Wisconsin
  • Chicago, Illinois
  • Gary, Indiana
  • Michigan City, Indiana
  • Benton Harbor, Michigan
  • Holland, Michigan
  • Muskegon, Michigan
  • Norton Shores, Michigan
  • Traverse City, Michigan
  • Escanaba, Michigan

Lake Erie

  • Monroe, Michigan
  • Toledo, Ohio
  • Sandusky, Ohio
  • Cleveland, Ohio
  • Erie, Pennsylvania
  • Fort Erie, Ontario
  • Buffalo, New York
  • Detroit, Michigan
  • Leamington, Ontario
  • Windsor, Ontario

Lake Ontario

  • Rochester, New York
  • Oswego, New York
  • Hamilton, Ontario
  • Kingston, Ontario
  • Toronto, Ontario
  • Oshawa, Ontario
  • St. Catharines, Ontario

Lake Huron

  • Alpena, Michigan
  • Bay City, Michigan
  • Port Huron, Michigan
  • Sarnia, Ontario
  • Owen Sound, Ontario
  • Collingwood, Ontario

See also

  • Sixty Years' War for control of the Great Lakes
  • International Boundary Waters Treaty
  • Muskellunge
  • Northern Pike

References

  • Beltran, R.

Additional topics

Company HistoryFinance: Banks & Credit

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