135 Years Strong
The Bennington State Bank was founded on integrity and trust and 135 years later, we are still driven by our founding principles that defines who we are.
The Bennington State Bank (BSB) is a community bank proudly serving Kansas for 135 years with branches in Salina, Bennington, Minneapolis, Wamego, Sylvan Grove, Lucas, Abilene and Wichita Kansas.
We are your local trusted hometown bank, dedicated to delivering exceptional hometown customer service you can count on paired with state of the art banking products and services that will help you achieve your goals!
Our Story
Our origins were built on the support of families and small business in rural Kansas. Since the beginning, The Bennington State Bank has kept safety and soundness of our customer’s financial matters as the cornerstone of our community bank, helping shape what BSB is today. For over 130 years, BSB has been committed to providing first class banking services to individuals, businesses and communities throughout central Kansas.
In 1883, Christian Nelson, one of the original founders of the town of Bennington, Kansas, and Adolph Gilbert formed a private bank. In 1887, that private bank became one of the first chartered by the State of Kansas and became known as The Bennington Banking Company, with Christian Nelson as president. Christain’s son, John, was later named President and the name of the bank was then changed to The Bennington State Bank.
In 1945, the bank was sold by the Nelson family to the Berkley family. In 1967, Kent (Mike) Berkley and his siblings assumed controlling ownership of the bank. Assets of the bank in 1967 totaled $5 million dollars. Today, with assets totaling over $800 million, BSB is one of the largest privately held banks in Kansas. BSB has consistently been recognized as a 5-Star rated bank by Bauer Financial, the nations leading independent bank rating firm, making BSB one of America’s strongest and safest financial institutions.
Throughout our long, storied history, BSB has consistently provided safety and soundness to its customers, while maintaining the capital, liquidity and balance sheet strength that allows BSB to be a leader in Kansas and take pride in the fact that we remain loyal to our roots as a local, independent full service community bank.