The story
The bank was chartered by New York State in 1888. In 1936 the name was changed to Astoria Savings & Loan Association. In 1937, the bank received a federal charter and became Astoria Federal Savings & Loan Association.
In 1989, George L. Engelke, Jr. was named president and chief executive officer of the company. In 1993, Astoria Financial Corporation was created as part of the conversion from a mutual organization to a joint-stock company.
In the 1990s, the bank acquired a number of other banks in the New York area. In 1995, the bank acquired Fidelity New York Savings Bank for $160 million in cash. In 1997, the bank acquired Greater New York Savings Bank for $293 million in stock and cash. In 1998, the bank acquired Long Island Savings Bank for $1.8 billion.
In 2012, George L. Engelke, Jr. resigned as chairman.
In 2017, the bank was acquired by Sterling Bancorp. At the time of the merger, the two banks had a combined value of approximately $30 billion in assets, $20 billion in gross loans, and over $19 billion in deposits, and planned to operate under the Sterling Bancorp name.
From Wikipedia’s article on Astoria Bank, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5