N.J. Manufacturers Insurance Gets Thrift Charter

New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Co. won permission Tuesday to launch a federal savings bank.

NJM Bank will offer checking and savings accounts and mortgage loan products through direct mail and advertising campaigns.

The bank's only branch would be located at the insurer's headquarters, in West Trenton, N.J. For Community Reinvestment Act purposes, the assessment area will be Mercer County.

The insurer, which has no agents, markets its products directly to state workers and employees of the 16,250 companies that belong to the New Jersey Business and Industry Association. The company has more than 325,000 policies outstanding.

Banking products will be marketed to those customers, who live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. The bank will also target the general population in those states, said Dominick Mazzagetti, the president and chief executive officer of NJM Bank.

Forty nonbanking companies-21 insurers, eight securities firms, four manufacturers, and seven others-have charter applications pending before the Office of Thrift Supervision.

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