Girard Bank

After the charter of the First Bank of the United States expired in 1811, the merchant Stephen Girard established a private bank, called "Girard's Bank", in the former BUS headquarters in order to maintain adequate banking facilities for Philadelphia. Girard died in 1831, and a group of local businessmen continued the institution as the "Girard Bank." In 1832 they received a state charter as the "Girard Bank of the City of Philadelphia." The bank was forced to suspend payment in January 1842 in the wake of the failure of the Second BUS and remained closed for four years. It became the Girard National Bank in 1865 under the provisions of the National Banking Act and was merged into the Philadelphia National Bank in 1926.