About Us

Southbridge Savings Bank Main Office 1800's		Southbridge Savings Bank Main Office Today
Photo courtesy of the Jacob Edwards Library Collection

Our Mission

Southbridge Savings Bank is a community-oriented mutual financial institution committed to high quality, personalized service through our greatest asset, our employees. The professional staff has been empowered to provide products and services to satisfy the needs of retail customers and small business customers in order to be the premier financial institution in our marketplace.

Our History

Southbridge Savings Bank first opened its doors in 1848 to the first depositor,
Ms. Fanny Richardson of Brookfield. In August of the same year, the bank granted
its first mortgage to local blacksmith Charles E. Cady in the Sandersdale section of Southbridge. The bank’s founders, which included prominent industrialists as well as civic and political leaders, opened a mutual savings institution that would provide the townspeople an opportunity for home ownership and build local businesses.

Since its opening, the vision set forth by Southbridge Savings Bank’s founders carries on. By staying true to the traditions of leadership, trustworthiness and service,
the bank continues to earn the loyalty of customers while remaining a strong hometown bank.

Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s the population along the banks of the Quinebaug River grew and Southbridge Savings Bank helped fund new businesses and homes. By the beginning of the 20th century, the inventions of electricity and automobiles further expanded growth in Southbridge bringing the total population up to 10,000. By the time World War I began, the banks assets totaled nearly $3 million. With business booming in the 1920s, industry and businesses expanded even more. The bank, however, maintained its policy of “merit before magnitude”
and this philosophy saved many Southbridge Savings Bank customers from the disastrous events of the stock market crash in 1929.

During the next forty years, the bank continued to expand and in 1972 Southbridge Savings Bank opened its first branch in Sturbridge, and another opened in Charlton in 1976. Through the recession of the mid 1970s, the bank maintained profitability even during the downturn of the economy.

In the 1980s, Southbridge Savings Bank expanded its services after joining with the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) and opened another branch at the Fair Shopping Plaza in Southbridge. The bank began offering innovative services including home equity credit lines, debit cards, and with the opening of a new branch at the Big Y in Spencer in 1996, the convenience of in-store banking. Since that time, six more branches were added, offering convenient banking and innovative products to nine communities from Sturbridge to Worcester.

With the opening of the North Oxford traditional branch in 2007, the bank now offers 9 full-service locations throughout Central Massachusetts, including two in-store branches that are open extended hours and seven days a week. In addition, the Worcester - West Boylston St., North Oxford & Webster locations offer even more convenience with an internet café where a customer can enjoy a hot cup of coffee while viewing breaking news on a flat screen or checking their accounts online.

As Southbridge Savings Bank looks toward a new future of operation, the vision set forth by its founders carries on. By staying true to the tradition of leadership, trustworthiness and service, the bank continues to earn the loyalty of customers.
A strong and committed hometown bank, Southbridge Savings is dedicated to serve the local community in their personal and professional endeavors.