The Banks Behind New York's Bank On Accounts

nbkc bank

Founded in 1999 as Horizon National Bank, renamed National Bank of Kansas City in 2004, and rebranded nbkc bank in December 2015, when it also converted from a national to a state charter. FDIC certificate 35014.

Michael Bartkoski is Bank President and CEO. John Mahoney became Chief Financial Officer on August 31, 2025, succeeding Eric Garretson, who had held the role since 2002; Jana Merfen became Chief Operations Officer on August 11, 2025.

Customer service: 866-931-0850, Monday through Friday 7am to 6pm CST, with live chat also available Saturday 9am to 1pm CST. The lost or stolen debit card line, 833-933-1681, is staffed 24 hours.

Four branches, all in metro Kansas City: Kansas City and Liberty, Missouri, and Overland Park and Leawood, Kansas. None in New York — New Yorkers open this account online. Access runs through more than 90,000 surcharge-free ATMs, with up to $12 a month reimbursed for out-of-network ATM fees. nbkc does not publish the name of the network behind that figure.

Total assets of $1.24 billion as of the June 30, 2026 call report.

The Everything Account charges no monthly fee, requires no opening deposit, and carries no overdraft or NSF fees. Mobile check deposit and bill pay are included at no cost, and the account pays 1.75% APY as of October 1, 2026 — unusual for a Bank On account. Domestic wires cost $5, international wires $45. The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund certified it under the 2025–2026 Bank On National Account Standards on September 11, 2025, making it one of the newer certifications on this list.

In April 2026 nbkc bought a 127,000-square-foot building at 7400 West 110th Street in Overland Park to serve as a new headquarters, with staff expected to move in 2027. No branch closures were announced alongside it, and FDIC records show no structural changes at all since February 2023.

Citizens Bank

Citizens traces its lineage to 1828 and the High Street Bank of Providence, Rhode Island, though the current national bank charter dates to May 13, 2005. The company went public in 2014 in what was then the largest commercial bank IPO in US history. FDIC certificate 57957.

Bruce Van Saun is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Brendan Coughlin is President, with oversight of consumer banking; Matt Boss is Head of Consumer Banking.

Customer service: 1-800-922-9999, Monday through Friday 7am to 10pm ET and weekends 9am to 6pm ET. Checking and savings questions route to 1-888-500-1478. Citizens publishes no consumer service email address; written contact goes through secure message inside online banking.

982 offices as of June 30, 2026, of which 171 are in New York — the largest New York branch network of any bank on this page. Those branches span 26 counties, concentrated in Kings (27), Erie (20), New York (18), Monroe (15), Nassau (10), Queens (9) and Albany (9), and reaching into the Hudson Valley, the Capital Region and Central New York. Roughly 3,000 Citizens ATMs.

Total assets of $232.5 billion as of June 30, 2026.

Citizens is the one bank here with two separately certified accounts, and the distinction matters. Citizens EverValue Checking is the general-purpose certified account. It costs $5.00 a month, and Citizens states plainly that "this fee cannot be waived." There is no overdraft fee and no NSF fee; transactions simply decline. Any amount opens the account. Using a non-Citizens ATM costs $2.50 per withdrawal, transfer, balance inquiry or mini-statement. Citizens Student Checking is also Bank On certified and charges nothing per month, but at least one account owner must be under 25 at opening — and it waives the other-bank ATM fee entirely, making it the better account for anyone eligible.

On July 16, 2026 Citizens said it will close 100 to 120 supermarket-based branches over the next decade, replacing roughly 50 to 60 with nearby standalone locations. The named grocery partners — Stop & Shop, Tops Friendly Markets and Giant Eagle — all operate in New York, so New York sites are very likely in scope, but Citizens has not published a list. New York branch churn in 2025 and the first quarter of 2026 was flat: four closed, four opened.

Ally Bank

Ally's lineage runs back to GMAC, founded in 1919 to finance General Motors dealers. The current Utah charter was established on August 2, 2004 as GMAC Bank and rebranded Ally Bank in 2009; the parent took the Ally Financial name in 2010 and listed on the NYSE in 2014. FDIC certificate 57803.

Michael G. Rhodes is Chief Executive Officer of Ally Financial. Lindsay Sacknoff is President, Consumer Banking. Russell Hutchinson is Chief Financial Officer.

Customer service: 1-877-247-2559, open 24 hours, seven days a week; +1-757-247-2559 from outside the United States. Ally publishes no bank customer service email address.

No branches, anywhere. Ally describes itself as an online bank that does not have physical branches "or the expenses that come with operating them," and the single office the FDIC records is the Sandy, Utah head office rather than a retail location. Cash access comes through the Allpoint and MoneyPass networks — more than 75,000 surcharge-free ATMs — plus up to $10 per statement cycle reimbursed for other ATMs' fees.

Total assets of $188.2 billion as of June 30, 2026.

The Spending Account charges no monthly fee and requires no minimum opening deposit. Overdraft items cost $0; Ally eliminated overdraft fees across all its accounts. Its CoverDraft feature covers up to $100 by default, rising to $250 for customers with qualifying direct deposits of at least $250 in two consecutive months, with 14 days to bring the balance positive and no fee either way. Transactions above the limit decline, again without a fee. The account pays 0.10% APY under $15,000 and 0.25% at or above it, as of October 1, 2026. Mobile check deposit, Zelle and standard bill pay are free; expedited bill payments cost $9.95 same-day or $14.95 overnight. Outgoing domestic wires are $20, a figure that appears only in a product guide dated August 2024 and is worth confirming.

Ally closed the sale of its credit card business to CardWorks on April 1, 2025 and stopped originating consumer mortgages in the second quarter of 2025. Neither touches deposit accounts. In September 2026 it launched a rewards program called Loyally, layered on existing accounts rather than replacing them.

Spring Bank

Spring Bank opened in 2007 in the South Bronx — by its own account the first bank to establish a base in that borough in more than 25 years. It is a Treasury-designated Community Development Financial Institution and has been a certified B Corporation since April 2016, the first B Corp bank in New York State. The holding company is CheckSpring Community Corp. FDIC certificate 58668; the charter is active. The FDIC rated its Community Reinvestment Act performance "Outstanding."

Demetris Giannoulias is Chief Executive Officer and founder, though the most recent confirmation of that title on the bank's own site dates to May 2024. Akbar Rizvi is President and Chief Lending Officer, a title the New York Department of Financial Services confirmed in March 2025. Barry Mann is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Customer service: (718) 879-5000. Both branches are open Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm. Automated online banking, bill pay and debit card lines run 24 hours. The email address on the contact page is obfuscated and does not render, so we are not publishing one.

Two branches: 69 East 167th Street in the Bronx, open since 2007, and 356 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn, which opened in January 2025 with a Banking Development District designation and $10 million in state deposits. Note that Spring Bank's own website still advertises a West Harlem branch at 2049 Frederick Douglass Boulevard; FDIC records show that branch closed effective November 30, 2023. There is no Manhattan location. ATM access runs through the MoneyPass network and any Citibank branch ATM; Spring Bank does not publish a count. Other ATMs cost $1.00 per withdrawal and $0.50 per balance inquiry.

Total assets of $640.95 million as of June 30, 2026 — by far the smallest institution here.

Green Checking is a checkless account: no paper checks are issued, and transactions run through the debit card, online banking and bill pay. It carries a $3.50 monthly fee, reduced by $1.00 with direct deposit and $2.50 with e-statements, reaching $0 only when both are in place. The minimum to open is $25. There are, in the bank's words, "No Overdraft Fees Ever." Online bill pay is free; a non-online bill payment costs $1.25. Worth knowing before you park a dormant account here: an inactivity fee of $2.50 a month applies after 12 months with a balance under $1,000, rising to $10 a month after 24 months.

The American Bankers Association lists Spring Bank among institutions offering a Bank On certified account. Neither Spring Bank's own site nor the Bank On directory confirms which account carries the certification, so treat the Green Checking attribution as probable rather than settled. No mergers, acquisitions or rebrands; FDIC structure records show only the 2023 Harlem closure and the 2025 Red Hook opening.

Spring Bank also runs small-dollar lending that is unusual for a bank this size: a Credit Builder Loan that holds the proceeds in savings, a Loyalty Loan up to $2,500 for customers of a year or more, a GoGreen Cycle Loan up to $2,500 with no minimum credit score, and an employer-partnered Opportunity Loan up to $3,000, also with no credit score minimum. Loan proceeds go into a Spring Bank savings account, there are no prepayment penalties, and free counseling is available through GreenPath Financial Wellness.

Bank of Greene

Founded in 1889 as The Building and Loan Association of Catskill. It converted to a mutual savings bank in 1974 as Greene County Savings Bank, took the name Bank of Greene County in 1998, and converted to a federal savings bank charter in 2006. On September 14, 2026 it shortened its name to Bank of Greene, and its website moved to bankofgreene.com. The FDIC has already recorded the new legal name under certificate 21591; the charter is active. The parent is Greene County Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: GCBC), 54.1% owned by Greene County Bancorp, MHC.

Donald E. Gibson is President and Chief Executive Officer of both the bank and its parent. Jay P. Cahalan is Chairman of the Board. Nick Barzee is Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Customer service: 518-943-2600. The Customer Service Center is open Monday through Wednesday 8:00am to 5:30pm, Thursday and Friday 8:00am to 6:00pm, and Saturday 8:30am to 1:00pm — the only Saturday phone coverage among the five. Automated Telebank runs 24 hours at 888-439-4272. There is no published email address, only a web contact form.

19 full-service branches across six New York counties: Greene (Catskill, Catskill Commons, Cairo, Coxsackie, Greenville, Tannersville), Columbia (Hudson, Greenport, Chatham-Ghent, Germantown, Copake, Kinderhook-Valatie), Albany (Wolf Road, Ravena-Coeymans, Westerlo), Ulster (Kingston, Woodstock), Rensselaer (East Greenbush) and Saratoga (Clifton Park, newly open). The bank's own rebrand release says "25 branches," which appears to count administrative and service centers; the 19 figure comes from its annual report. No ATM network is named, but four surcharge-free ATM sites are published beyond the branches: Bard College, Columbia Memorial Health, Columbia-Greene Community College and the Hillsdale IGA.

Total assets of $3.18 billion as of June 30, 2026. Note that the parent also owns a second insured bank, Greene County Commercial Bank, whose assets are already inside that consolidated figure.

BankOn Checking — spelled as one word on the bank's own page — advertises no monthly maintenance fees, no minimum balance fees, no overdraft fees and "no surprise fees," and the page carries a Bank On certification badge marked 2025-2026. The bank does not publish a minimum opening deposit or an NSF fee amount anywhere on its site, and there is no public fee schedule, so we are not quoting figures for either. One thing a low-balance customer should compare: the bank's FREE e-CHECKING pays 5.00% APY on balances between $1 and $500, which for some people will be worth more than the fee-free guarantees on BankOn Checking.

No mergers, acquisitions or branch closures in the last 18 months. The direction has been expansion — the Clifton Park branch is the bank's first in Saratoga County.

Where published terms differ from our data

Every row below is a correction to our own records, not a criticism of the bank.

Three accounts we left out

Three institutions scored at the top of our New York ranking and are not on this page.

Compare every New York account

This page covers five institutions. All 71 Bank On certified accounts available in New York, ranked by cost, are on our New York checking accounts page.