NJBankers is Celebrating our 119th Anniversary

NJBankers is a membership organization that represents all types of FDIC-insured banking institutions headquartered or having offices in New Jersey. NJBankers has roots that go back more than 100 years and is composed of three formerly independent associations.

The original New Jersey Bankers Association was founded by 53 commercial bankers in 1903 as a way to collectively address what founders considered to be “adverse legislation.” After considering an invitation to join the New Jersey Bankers Association in 1908, the state’s savings bankers decided to form their own association, the New Jersey Savings Bank Association. A year later the state’s building and loan associations created their own group, the New Jersey Building and Loan League. 

While all three groups initially had differing priorities due to the types of institutions they represented, changes in the marketplace over the decades brought many of their issues and concerns into alignment. The original Savings Bank Association of New Jersey, which had been renamed New Jersey’s Community and Savings Bankers, combined with the original New Jersey Building and Loan League, which had been renamed the New Jersey Savings League, in 1996. The combined group took on a new name of New Jersey League Community and Savings Bankers that was later shortened to New Jersey League of Community Bankers.

In 2009 the legacy New Jersey Bankers Association and the New Jersey League of Community Bankers combined and for the first time in New Jersey’s history there is a single organization representing the interests of the banking industry in the state. The new, combined group kept the New Jersey Bankers Association name and commonly uses NJBankers as an abbreviated name. Firms that provide goods and services to the banking industry are eligible to join the association as associate members.

As in 1903, the primary function of NJBankers today is to represent members’ interests before legislators and regulators to ensure that banks compete in a fair and open marketplace. Additionally, NJBankers maintains a visible public and media relations effort to ensure fair and balanced media coverage of the industry. Member education is another principal service of the association and is provided through conferences, seminars and publications, all designed to keep bankers and their directors up-to-date on important banking matters.

NJBankers is governed by a board of directors composed of banking member executives and headed by a Chairman elected by the Board. The association also has volunteer committees, composed of employees of its member institutions, which meet regularly and provide counsel and advice to NJBankers’ staff and the board of directors in their areas of expertise.