N.Y. Bank Opening Branch on K Street; Amalgamated Will Target Unions
A New York bank, founded 75 years ago by garment workers who couldn't get credit from traditional banks, is opening its first branch in the District, targeting unions and their members.</br></br>But workers who are looking for the union label will have to venture into an unfamiliar territory -- along the city's highbrow corporate corridor, downtown's K Street.</br></br>Amalgamated Bank, the nation's only bank solely owned by a union, will begin taking new customers today at 1825 K St. NW, its first branch outside New York City.</br></br>"The labor movement is changing and we're changing with it," said Jay Mazur, chairman of the bank, which is owned by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.</br></br>Founded in 1923 by the then-Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, the bank built a reputation in New York City for providing some of the lowest interest rates on loans and also paying some of the highest rates on money-market accounts. Bank officials say they hope to continue that trend, by offering free checking accounts with no minimum balance. Bank officials said many of their customers are not union members.