State: Gouverneur Savings & Loan to convert to state charter

GOUVERNEUR — The Gouverneur Savings & Loan Association in St. Lawrence County is among three New York banks that the state has approved for conversion to a state charter.

Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS), made the announcement Friday in a news release.

The other two banks are in the Hudson Valley and New York City. The effective dates of all three conversions will be Dec. 31, the DFS said.

The department is seeing an “increasing number” of banks covert to New York charters, which is a “trend we expect to continue,” Lawsky said in the news release.

“As a state-banking regulator, we are accessible, responsive, and familiar with the needs and local markets of New York’s community banks,” Lawsky said in the release.

Banks can choose to operate under federal or state charters. The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had been regulating the banks that are converting to state charters, DFS said.

Founded in 1892, Gouverneur Savings & Loan Association serves a primary market area of southern St. Lawrence county and northern Jefferson and Lewis counties, the department said.

The bank focuses on residential mortgage loans secured by one-to-four family residences.

Its assets total about $144 million, the state said.

“The conversion of our charter to a New York State chartered savings and loan association is consistent with and promotes our community banking focus,” Charles Van Vleet, Jr., Gouverneur Savings & Loan’s president and CEO, said in the news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com