Bank of United States

The Bank of United States was chartered on June 23, 1913, with a capital of $100,000 and a surplus of $50,000. Located at 77 Delancey Street in New York City, the bank was founded by Joseph S. Marcus, a former president of the Public Bank, also of Delancey Street. Marcus, who was responsible for the building up of Public Bank, started the new bank, with the backing of several well-known financiers, because of a disagreement with other members of the management. Though the directors of Public Bank objected to the choice of name, arguing that "ignorant foreigners would believe that the United States government was interested in this bank and that it was a branch of the United States Treasury in Washington," the name was approved and the bank came into being. The use of such an appellation was outlawed in 1926 but did not apply retroactively.

The founder, Joseph Solomon Marcus, was a Jewish immigrant to the United States. He was born in 1862, although his origin is unknown, with some saying he was born in Telz, Germany, others saying Memel, Germany; in the 1905 New York census he claimed he was from Russia. Marcus went to school in Essen and immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. He worked his way up from being a tailor to a garment industry business to being a banker. He founded the Public Bank in 1906 and the Bank of United States in 1913. He died on July 3, 1927. He was also a philanthropist known for his donations to the Beth Israel Hospital and to the Hebrew Association for the Blind. His son, Bernard K. Marcus, a graduate of Worcester Academy and Columbia University, joined the bank as cashier in 1913 and became vice president in 1918.