Helm at the Helm

BANKING Helm at the Helm

Banker Harold Holmes Helm, 58, expansion-minded chairman of Manhattan's Chemical Corn Exchange Bank, long had his "loving eye" on the New York Trust Co. He knew that a minority of New York Trust shareholders wanted to sell out if they could get a good price. New York Trust's big wholesale banking business (specializing in large industrial accounts) and its seven offices would nicely complement his own 94-office bank doing a largely retail banking business with smaller clients. Last week Helm proposed a merger, swapping 1 3/4 shares of Chemical Corn stock for one share of New York Trust. Directors of the New York Trust accepted the offer.

Though shareholders of both banks (and regulatory agencies) must still approve. the merger is expected to go through in about five weeks. In pulling it off Helm will make the combined Chemical Bank New York Trust Co. (deposits of $3.8 billion) the third largest bank in New York, the fourth in the nation (after the Bank of America, $9.5 billion; New York's First National City. $6.8 billion; and Chase Manhattan. $6.4 billion).

The merger will be the second in the last five years, during which the bank's deposits have more than doubled. Kentucky-born Harold Helm went to work for the 135-year-old Chemical Bank in 1920 straight from Princeton, was made assistant cashier six years later at 25, one of the youngest men in the company's history in that job. Coolly efficient and able to turn on charm to convince a client or win over a potential ally. Helm became vice president in 1929, first vice president in 1946, president in 1947, finally took over as chairman in 1956, when former chairman N. Baxter Jackson reached retirement age. Never one to stop growing. Helm charts the bank's rising deposits on his office wall. In 1954 he saw an opportunity to grow in one jump. He urged Chairman Jackson to buy out the century-old Corn Exchange Bank, which had 78 branches and $774 million in deposits, and paid a premium of $25 a share to get the Corn Exchange stock. The price proved right. The merged bank's deposits rose to $3.2 billion in 1958. With the New York Trust Co. branches he will have the third biggest branch-office system in New York.

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