Each
charter’s life varied from community to
community, association to association and ranged from
just a few years to a maximum of 99 years. Somewhat
like the “Sunrise and Sunset” provisions we
find in today’s legislation, each organizing
group was empowered to select an appropriate charter
period during which their mission was to be
performed. Trenton’s visionaries chose a charter
of 99 years, assuming that individuals could
conceivably buy more than one home during a lifetime
and that the association’s mission might never
be complete as long as there was someone still
seeking to purchase a home. By the mid-1950's,
following legislative changes to the chartering
provisions of Illinois law, Trenton’s charter
was amended to a “Charter in Perpetuity”.It was also at
this time that Trenton Building and Loan Association
joined the Federal Home Loan Bank System and applied
for Insurance of Accounts from the Federal Savings
and Loan Insurance Corporation. Still being a state
chartered mutual association, membership in the
federal banking system would give rise to certain
specialized products and services not available from
traditional banking sources and with insurance of
accounts, depositors would be more comfortable having
the insured safety guarantee of a federal agency. The
association's office was moved from the first block
of South Main to 8 West Broadway to gain more
visibility and traffic from U.S. Highway 50 which
runs East and West through the center of town.
In the early
1960's, the State again modernized the charter law by
incorporating the words “savings and loan”
as being more descriptive of the business and the
services such charters were providing. Trenton
Building and Loan thus became known as Trenton
Savings and Loan Association.
Also in the
early sixties, the Savings and Loan moved temporarily
into the vacant Farmers Bank building, just a couple
of doors West, while the 8 West Broadway location was
remodeled and a new addition built. With its
impressive decorative glass block facade, increased
office space and drive-up window, the Association was
again modernizing to keep pace with business and
service improvements. The 8 West Broadway location
was re-occupied in 1966.
By 1980, ground
once held sacred and secure by the banking industry
began to breakdown. Interest bearing checking
accounts called “Negotiable Orders of
Withdrawal” or NOW accounts for short, were
authorized for thrift institutions following a
successful experiment conducted in the New England
states during the late 1970's. Previous service lines
of traditional passbook and certificate accounts
could now be expanded to include this form of
interest bearing checking. Public response to this
new type of checking account was such that by 1981,
Trenton Savings and Loan was once again feeling the
building squeeze and began planning for expansion.
While not
wishing to abandon the downtown business district,
the Association looked at several alternate site
locations, including three parcels in the downtown
area. Sites outside the downtown area had space
advantages, however convenience, distance and related
commerce were of great concern. Downtown parcels
presented different complications such as displacing
existing businesses, but with study, cooperation and
ingenuity, all the displaced businesses except one,
were able to relocate and reopen on the North side of
Broadway with little or no disruption. Site
demolition was begun in June 1981.
During the
planning and design phase, every possible idea was on
the table. Except for its contemporary exterior
appearance, the interior quarters were to convey a
comfortable feeling of hominess with private offices
held to a minimum. Three huge wooden trusses
constructed on-site provide a focal point of strength
and mass in the clerestory with the floor space
underneath them devoted to a large open atmosphere
customer service area. Improved off-street parking,
multiple lane drive-up facilities, safe deposit
boxes, coupon booths, public restrooms, zoned
heating/air conditioning and lighting systems and
handicapped accessibility were all designed into the
structure. Construction began in December 1982 and by
January 1983, Trenton Savings and Loan Association
was again on the move, this time to 28 West Broadway.
In late 1982,
Trenton Savings and Loan expanded its operations by
entering into a definitive agreement to purchase
certain assets and assume the liabilities of the
Breese, Illinois branch of Mid State Savings, then
headquartered in Carlyle, Illinois. Even though
Trenton did have a presence in the Breese community,
the addition of the branch location and deposits
solidified its relationship in the community. The
transaction was a good faith, non-assisted purchase
that was consummated in November 1982. Situated at
304 North 4th Street, this main East/West
thoroughfare in Breese is also U.S. Highway 50. In
1984 the branch was extensively remodeled and
modernized to provide enhanced customer service
conveniences.
Since the main
office’s move to new quarters, the old S&L
office remained empty. Requests would be periodically
received to rent or lease the space for businesses
like an aerobics hall, a pizza parlor, a pub and the
like, however, none were considered to reflect the
tenure of the previous occupant. The City of Trenton
had moved its offices to the vacant Farmers Bank
Building and by 1988 needed additional usable space.
A couple of conversations were held with the Mayor
about our vacant building and whether there were any
plans to sell or lease the space. This lead to
several more discussions and finally a signed
agreement stating, in part, that the Savings and Loan
and City would swap buildings (the old S&L’s
office for the Farmers Bank building) and then share
the cost of demolition of the old bank building and
an adjoining structure the Savings and Loan had
purchased in February 1988. With City Council
approval, the swap took place in June 1988 and
demolition in late March of 1989. The site has been
maintained as a green space.
By late 1989,
with the dark cloud of the growing national
“savings and loan” crisis on the front page
and on every televised news program featuring the
broad brush of criticism and mistrust and financial
malady that was seriously affecting the genuine
aspect of the thrift industry, Trenton Savings and
Loan Association, at a special meeting of the
members, adopted a plan of conversion that would
change the Institution from a state chartered mutual
savings and loan to a federally chartered mutual
savings bank. It’s new name would be Tempo Bank,
A Federal Savings Bank and would be chartered and
regulated by the U. S. Department of the Treasury,
Office of Thrift Supervision. On September 18, 1989,
only two months away from its one hundredth
anniversary as a state chartered mutual, unanimous
consent by vote of the members was granted for the
charter conversion.
It was difficult
to give up that many years of association and
community name recognition, but it had to be done to
dissipate growing customer fear. The public’s
general impression was that every “S&L”
was going under. We knew the generalizations were not
true, but whom could the customer believe. Our
repeated “safe and sound” messages locally
went unheralded amidst the volume and presumed
credibility afforded the national press.
On August 7,
1989, the Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and
Enforcement Act (FIRREA) was signed into law by
President George Bush. This massive piece of federal
legislation restructured the federal deposit
insurance system by declaring that the FSLIC was
bankrupt; that the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) would collect premiums and manage
both the Bank Insurance Fund (BIF) for banks and the
newly created Savings Association Insurance Fund
(SAIF) for savings and loans and savings banks; a new
federal agency, the Office of Thrift Supervision
(OTS), was formed within the U.S. Treasury Department
to regulate and supervise the thrift industry; and,
another new agency, the Resolution Trust Corporation
(RTC), was formed to act as conservator for insolvent
or failing institutions. New capital standards were
mandated for every financial institution with
compliance by a date certain or be thrust into the
RTC's conservator program. Other elements of FIRREA
were designed to rid the industry of fraud, deceit,
mismanagement and incompetence and to forever
preclude this kind of scandal from happening again.
