[citation needed] The Mellon family using the bank as a proxy had direct involvement with founding the modern aluminium, oil, consumer electronics and financial industries.

Alcoa, Gulf Oil (now Chevron-Texaco), Westinghouse (now CBS Corporation and Siemens) and Rockwell, all were directly founded and managed by the bank.

U.S. Steel (the world's first billion-dollar corporation), Heinz, General Motors, Koppers and ExxonMobil (as Rockefeller's Standard Oil) were born and nurtured by Mellon.

Talks began when Tom Renyi approached Robert Kelly about a possible amalgamation between the Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corporation.

All were originally large diversified financial service providers, particularly in the corporate banking space in the regions they were located in.