Bank of New York’s Robin Vince makes hay while sun shines on US economy

SINGAPORE - If Lee Jeans brands itself as “the jeans that built America”, you could say Bank of New York (BNY) could stake a similar claim in finance. It is the longest operating company in New York, the oldest member of the S&P 500 and the first stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It held president George Washington’s account, and a co-founder was Treasury secretary and America’s founding father, Alexander Hamilton.

But BNY has salience to American economic history for another reason. You could call it the lender that initiated the US government’s debt itch; Warrant No. 1, as the earliest bonds were called, totalled US$200,000 and were issued to the government by BNY in 1789 to pay the salaries of members of the US Congress.