[4][5] Its roots trace back to Commercial Bank of Albany, New York in 1825 and Cleveland's Society for Savings, founded in 1849.

In 1867, the modest but growing bank built Cleveland's first skyscraper, the 10-story Society for Savings Building on Public Square.

In 1987, Society CEO Gordon E. Heffern retired and was succeeded by Robert W. Gillespie, who, although just 42, was a major figure and part of the office of the chairman for more than 5 years.

However, its footing became unsteady due to bad real estate loans, forcing the resignation of AmeriTrust chairman Jerry V. Jarrett in 1990.

Beginning in the 1980s, Riley looked outside New York, expanding Key's footprint with an acquisition in Maine, and eventually adding branches in Massachusetts and Vermont.

In March 1992, it acquired Tacoma-based Puget Sound Bancorp for $807.2 million (~$1.57 billion in 2023) to bolster its presence in Washington.

Not only was it insulated from regional economic downturns, but it avoided bad loans by lending primarily to customers in the areas it served.

However, it was getting tougher for Riley and CFO William Dougherty to maintain their 15% return on equity target and investors were cooling on Key stock after many high growth years.

[18] Although Gillespie had built Society into a regional powerhouse in the Midwest, he wanted to vault the bank into the big leagues.

Society and Key held talks in 1990 at Gillespie's prompting, but Riley decided to stay the course of smaller, more lucrative acquisitions with obvious synergies.

The head of KeyBank of Washington, Hans Harjo, was pushed out over an apparent dispute to move its headquarters from Seattle to Tacoma.

Meanwhile, Society was in search of higher growth and longed to expand its presence outside of the so-called rust belt states of Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.

This time it was Riley who made the first move; he called Gillespie while recuperating at his Albany home after breaking his hip in a horse-riding accident in Wyoming.

The banks were roughly the same size in assets and had very little geographic overlap, so it was touted as an out-of-market merger in which few branches needed to be sold off.

More importantly, Society had the computer systems and technology expertise to combine the two banks, along with Chief Information Officer Allen J.

[21] Riley also lamented the modest Albany International Airport, which lost service from several major airlines in the 1980's and complicated air travel for Key executives.

Society, in contrast, was a classic big-city commercial bank with a centralized structure largely concentrated in three states.

[citation needed] While still integrating Society Bank and KeyBank, Gillespie attempted to turn Key into a financial services powerhouse.

[29] As a result, Key began processing all subsequent securities transactions under its new broker-dealer name, "KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc", in April 2007.

For instance, Key sold its residential mortgage servicing to Countrywide Financial (now Bank of America Home Loans) in 1995, shareholder services in 1996, various chunks of the bank in 1997–1999 (i.e. Wyoming, Florida, and Long Island), and credit card operations to The Associates in 2000 (which was quickly thereafter acquired by Citigroup).

[citation needed] But Gillespie was attempting to increase fee-income by acquiring high-growth businesses, including McDonald and equipment financing firm Leastec, and decreasing the exposure to the bank's shrinking population base in its primary footprint, so-called rust belt states such as Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.

[35] In January 2015, KeyBank participated in the construction debt financing syndicate behind the Balko Wind Project purchased from Apex Clean Energy by D.E.

[37] The deal strengthened Key's position in Upstate New York and New England, as well as entering Pennsylvania for the first time with a presence in both Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Instead of teller lines, the branch features private offices where clients can interact with bankers trained as "financial wellness consultants".