Company Background

Presidential Bank, FSB, was organized in 1985. Our assets exceed $800 million. Our main office is located in Bethesda, Maryland. We have branches located throughout the metro DC area. We are regulated by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency as a federal savings bank and our deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

On October 6, 1995, Presidential® became the first bank in the United States to offer its bank accounts over the Internet. Beginning in 1997, Presidential was one of the earliest banks to offer online account statements and then real time PC banking services, such as current balance look-up capability and transfers between accounts. Our unique online archive of historical account statements and check copies, followed later by deposit copies, goes back to the beginning of the availability of these documents online; they are never deleted from our website, providing customers with useful long-term reference information. Software for this service was developed in-house, and a patent was granted for this system.

Presidential attempts to take advantage of market opportunities as they arise, even if these opportunities require a departure from traditional ways of doing business. During the period from 1992 to 1997, Presidential fueled its growth and profitability by purchasing performing loans acquired from failed commercial banks and thrifts through the FDIC and the RTC. These purchases provided higher yielding portfolio lending opportunities than were available from new loan originations at the time. Since the onset of the recent mortgage crisis in 2008, Presidential was able to seize the market opportunity to more than double the size of its mortgage lending group to become one of the largest locally owned mortgage bankers in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Presidential was founded by the founder of GIT Investment Funds (now called Madison Funds) of Arlington, Virginia, a group of stock, bond, international and money market mutual funds, which had its origins in 1975. Today Presidential remains a privately held, entrepreneurial organization. Since inception, Presidential has maintained sound capitalization, never failing to meet regulatory capital minimums, even as the local banking industry in the Washington, DC area experienced significant difficulties and many failures during the late 1980's, early 1990's and during the financial crisis of 2008.

We have operated continuously under the same ownership and management since inception. We take pride in our stability and in our nearly 30-year record of home mortgage lending, commercial lending and deposit banking service to members of our local community.

Business Philosophy

At Presidential, we have a simple philosophy, to provide responsive, professional service through local, independent leadership.

If you look at our high Deposit Rates, you will see that they are among the most attractive in the marketplace. Washington Consumers' Checkbook magazine has rated us higher than any other bank or savings and loan in the Washington, D.C., area for "Reasonableness of Fee Policies", based upon an extensive survey of bank customers. See for yourself, by checking our low Schedules of Fees. In fact, we've been highly rated by several organizations, see our Media Rankings. Our Home Mortgage Rates are extremely competitive, and our Commercial Lending department is ready to help your business grow! And we are small enough to give customers the personal attention they expect. 

How does Presidential offer such good value?

1. We keep costs down, by limiting the number and size of our branches and by locating them in areas with high concentrations of potential customers.

2. We use innovative methods, such as expanding our presence on the Internet, which offer the potential to further reduce the cost of distributing banking products to the consumer.

3. We are careful to lend depositors' money for good returns at reasonable risk, enabling us to pay a fair rate of interest on customer balances.

4. We give our customers access to the best mortgage rates we can find anywhere from high volume institutional mortgage buyers, passing on the benefits of lower rates to the borrower.

5. We specialize in making smaller (under $2 million) commercial real estate loans that many "mega-banks" do not want to be bothered with, allowing us to provide good service to smaller commercial borrowers, while diversifying credit risks and allowing good returns to our depositors.

Overview of Presidential Online Banking

Presidential Online Bank is a division of Presidential Bank, FSB, Bethesda, Maryland and was established on October 6, 1995, to become the vehicle of Presidential’s future growth through internet banking. Prior to the development of the internet, Presidential followed a strategy of limited branching, building smaller, lower cost branches, in high density locations to reduce the number of branches required. With the development of the internet into a viable marketing channel for financial services products, this approach to branching is carried to the next level. Presidential's primary marketing efforts for bank deposits and loans to consumers are focused on the internet serving customers nationwide.

Financial Strength

Selected Financial Data (in thousands), as of March 31 each year

Basel III Regulatory Capital Framework (Note 1) as of March 31, 2024

Note 1 – Regulatory capital is a key factor considered by the OCC to determine whether a savings association is operating in a safe and sound manner.  At March 31, 2024, the Bank maintained capital levels that exceeded all regulatory minimums.

Annual Statements of Condition