The City of Scranton, Pennsylvania and Amalgamated Bank have completed a $13 million Tax Anticipation Note (TAN) loan to provide cash flow financing to the city in 2015. The transaction was approved unanimously by the Scranton City Council in December 2014.
“We’re pleased to have finalized this $13 million financing to the City of Scranton, which has been a very important customer for Amalgamated Bank,” said Robert O’Brien, Senior Vice President, Public Finance at Amalgamated Bank. “Our Public Finance and Executive Management teams rolled up their sleeves to help the city so that Scranton will be able to continue providing the levels of public services that its families and businesses deserve.”
The 12-month loan, effective January 2, 2015 will help enable the city to continue to fund municipal services, including salary and wages for the police and fire departments, without interruption.
Over the past year and a half, Amalgamated Bank has increased its focus on the public finance sector as many municipal entities across the country face shrinking revenue streams and the continued fall-out from the financial crisis. “Our activity in Public Finance continues to be aimed at building upon the Bank’s rich history of serving under-banked communities and supporting working families,” said Mr. O’Brien. Founded by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1923, Amalgamated Bank is the largest majority-owned union bank in the country today.
In addition to two previous TAN financings with Scranton in 2012 and 2013, Amalgamated also completed a $22 million deal in April 2014 with another Pennsylvania entity, Capital Region Water (CRW), the municipal utility that delivers and treats Harrisburg’s drinking and waste water. The Amalgamated transaction with CRW -- which re-financed existing water revenue bonds held by another investor to provide meaningful cost savings to the water system under the first two years of the Amalgamated structure -- represented the Harrisburg water system’s first market access since losing its investment grade rating in 2011.
Other notable Amalgamated Bank public finance transactions include a 2014 cash flow financing as a co-lender for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as well as a 2013 cash flow financing with the City of Allen Park (MI), a small city located outside of Detroit which was under a State-appointed Emergency Manager.
Since its founding in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Amalgamated Bank has been committed to affordable and accessible banking for all. The bank is proud to continue to advance the rights of workers through shareholder activism, products and services designed to protect workers and advocacy. The Bank’s corporate divisions include Community Banking, Investment Management and Commercial Lending. Amalgamated has retail branches in New York City as well as branches in: Lyndhurst, New Jersey; Pasadena, California; and Washington, D.C.