NEW YORK, NY (Jan. 22, 2024) – Executives and staff of Greene County Bancorp, Inc. (GCBC) rang the bell to close the Nasdaq stock exchange late this afternoon in New York City’s Times Square.
The closing ceremony celebrated the bank’s 135th anniversary and its 25th year as a publicly traded company on Nasdaq.
“During those 135 years, our nation has experienced the hardships of war, and the blessings of peace. There have been booms and busts…and many challenges for a business to overcome,” said bank President & CEO Donald Gibson. “Without having access to the names of all the companies that opened their doors for the first time in 1889, I would hazard a guess that few of them remain today.”
“The company’s watershed moment came in 1999, when the newly named Bank of Greene County went public, forming a holding company and listing its stock on Nasdaq,” said David Wicks, Vice President of Listings for the exchange. “At the time, the primarily retail bank had just four branches and $151 million in assets. Today—only 25 years later—Greene County Bancorp operates 18 branches in New York’s Hudson Valley and Capital Region, and has over $2.6 billion in assets.”
“Whenever I’m asked how our community bank has managed to maintain a leadership position for all these years, my answer is always the same: we’ve had the best people,” said Mr. Gibson.
Some of the bank’s accomplishments since listing its stock on Nasdaq 25 years ago:
· Expanding from four branches in Greene County to 18 spread across New York’s Hudson Valley and Capital Region.
· Growing assets from $151 million in 1999 to more than $2.6 billion in 2023.
· Launching commercial and municipal lines of business.
· Adding Investment Services and Private Banking divisions.
· Posting 15 consecutive years of record net income through fiscal 2023.
“It’s especially noteworthy that the company achieved all of this while safeguarding its community-banking ethos,” said Mr. Wicks. “No mergers or acquisitions…just hard-fought, grass roots, organic growth. GCBC truly is one of our Nasdaq success stories, and we love telling it.”
Bank of Greene County is the primary banking subsidiary of GCBC, with headquarters in Catskill, NY. The bank was founded in Catskill on Jan. 22, 1889.
About 75 bank officers, directors and guests attended the bell-ringing ceremony in New York City this afternoon.
