Sandy Spring Bank is a community bank headquartered in Olney, serving the Washington metropolitan area. It operates 55 branches and 6 financial centers. The local bank came in at #5 on the 13th annual ‘America’s Best Banks’ list by esteemed business magazine, Forbes.
Forbes’ 13th annual America’s Best Banks list looks at growth, credit quality and profitability to rank the 100 largest publicly-traded banks and thrifts. Sandy Spring Bank came in 5th nationally and was the highest ranking D.C. area bank.
Per the article, bank profitability is on the rise, with 96.8% of banks profitable, according to data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures or supervises more than 8,000 banks nationwide. This marks a new high water mark for this century after that number dipped as low as 69.2% in 2009.
Sandy Spring Bank was founded in 1868 by farmers who were Quakers. It was created for the farmers to pool their savings to make home loans to their neighbors.
Sandy Spring Bank History, per the bank:
The year was 1868. A group of local business and townspeople, 25 miles from the nation’s capital, were reeling from the deeply troubled economic conditions of the post Civil War era. An unprecedented number of new federal taxes had eroded the little savings they could manage.
Recovering from a long and costly war, the large banks in Washington and Baltimore seemed too cold, distant, and beholden to the federal government to bring a measure of financial security to their families. Something had to be done.
The answer would come from within the community and through the formation of a new bank; a bank that would serve the interests of all people in their community, staffed and managed by those who lived and worked in their community. It would serve the individual needs of each customer, one at a time, and through the dedicated efforts of its employees, make the community a better place to live. Over 150 years later, Sandy Spring Bank has not only survived, but has also thrived by living by those same principles.
Though our assets and presence throughout the Greater Washington region have grown, our associates still take pride in serving each and every client with consistently remarkable service, delivered with integrity. In fact, we have received numerous recognitions and awards over the course of our history, including most recently being named as a Top Workplace by The Washington Post and a Best-In-State Bank by Forbes. We continue to be at the forefront of technology in banking and provide state of the art money management and online banking services that rival those provided by the largest of banks.
Our commitment to making our community a better place to live, work, raise a family and run a business has never wavered. Through the shared effort of our employees, we give back to our community all year long. While we devote significant resources to nearly 300 non-profits across our footprint, our employees are encouraged to volunteer individually to their favorite cause.
Today, over a century and a half since we first opened our doors, we proudly serve as one of the oldest and largest independent financial institutions in the area. Yet we are still the alternative to the large, out of town banks, having never wavered from the guiding principles of our roots.
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