The Citizens' National Bank — Charter No. 4764, and the city's one insured-era failure

1892 – 1934

The third charter: The Citizens' National Bank of South Bend was organized on 12 May 1892 and chartered on 25 June 1892, OCC Charter No. 4764. It banked first at 120 South Michigan, in the Lincoln Block, and later at 112 West Jefferson. Its presidents were A. Listenberger (1893), George W. Lewis (1894–1902), C. Fassnacht (1903–1918), Clement Studebaker Jr. (1919–1922) — the wagon-and-automobile family's second generation, carried here because the charter record carries him — and G. H. McMichael (1923–1932). On 27 March 1919 it absorbed the South Bend National Bank by consolidation and became the city's second-largest national bank.

Conservatorship and failure: The Citizens' National survived the closings of 1931 but not the banking crisis of 1933. In the re-opening after the national bank holiday it was placed in conservatorship on 18 March 1933 — Conservator No. 214 — and the conservatorship failed to restore it. In February 1934 the Comptroller announced it would be succeeded by a new institution, the City National Bank of South Bend, and on 23 March 1934 a receiver was appointed — Receivership No. 2777 — the only South Bend bank failure of the deposit-insurance era, handled as a Comptroller's receivership of a national bank. The receiver was Joseph E. Neff, who had been president of the Union Trust Company until that company's own failure in 1931. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation authorized a loan of $1,340,000 on the closed bank's assets. The receivership was completed on 30 March 1940.

Sources:

1. Thomas A. Pollock, Tabular Guide to United States National Banks, 1863–1935, the monograph for Charter No. 4764 — organization 12 May 1892, charter 25 June 1892, the addresses, the presidents, the 1919 consolidation, the conservatorship of 18 March 1933 (Conservator No. 214), the receivership of 23 March 1934 (No. 2777), receiver Joseph E. Neff, the announced succession by a new charter, and completion 30 March 1940.
2. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Alphabetical List of National Banks (1917) — Charter No. 4764.
3. Reconstruction Finance Corporation, report of loans authorized, April 1935 (govinfo) — the $1,340,000 section 5(e) loan authorized on the assets of the closed Citizens' National Bank of South Bend.