History
Mellon was founded in 1869 by Thomas Mellon and his sons Andrew W. Mellon and Richard B. Mellon, as T. Mellon & Sons' Bank. In 1902, the institution became Mellon National Bank.

In 1929, Richard founded Mellbank Corporation. In 1946, Mellon National, Mellbank, and the Union Trust Company merged to form Mellon National Bank and Trust Company.

A reorganization in 1972 brought about a name change to Mellon Bank, N.A. and the formation of a holding company, Mellon National Corporation.

In 1983, Mellon bought Girard Bank of Philadelphia and Central Counties Bank of State College, Pennsylvania. The next year, Mellon National Corporation became Mellon Bank Corporation, and purchased Northwest Pennsylvania Corporation of Oil City, Pennsylvania.

In 1986, Mellon bought Commonwealth National Financial of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Four years later, in 1990, Mellon bought 54 branch offices of Philadelphia-based PSFS, the first savings bank in the United States, founded in 1819.

In 1991, Mellon bought United Penn Bank of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The next year, Mellon acquired the rest of PSFS, whose parent company had become insolvent.

In 1993, Mellon bought The Boston Company from American Express and AFCO Credit Corporation from The Continental Corporation. The next year, Mellon merged with The Dreyfus Corporation, bringing its mutual funds under its umbrella.

1998 saw Mellon's purchase of United Bankshares, Inc., of Miami, 1st Business Bank of Los Angeles, and Founders Asset Management.

In 1999, Martin G. McGuinn became chairman and chief executive officer of Mellon Bank Corporation. Mellon Bank Corporation then became Mellon Financial Corporation. Two years later, it sold its retail banking operations to Citizens Financial Group.

In 2004, Mellon announced it would purchase Safeco Trust Company from Seattle-based Safeco Corporation. The same year, it purchased outstanding shares in London-based Pareto Partners and offered them floor space in Mellon Financial Centre (opened earlier in the year).

In 2006, Mellon announced its plans to merge with Bank of New York.

Future
On December 4, 2006, The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corp. said that they will merge, creating the world's largest securities servicing firm and one of the world's top ten asset managing firms. The merged company would be called "The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation."

These two companies, along with State Street, followed essentially the same evolution. All were originally large diversified financial service providers, particularly in the corporate banking space in the regions they were located in. However competition in the corporate loans and retail banking businesses saw them jettison these operations in favor of what were believed to be more stable, fee based business: asset management (ie. investment management in the form of mutual funds and other separately managed accounts) and asset servicing (ie. corporate trust, stock transfer services and American Depository Receipts).

Mellon is a large provider of what are known as controlled disbursement accounts. These are checking accounts in specialized locations which are given early warning by the Federal Reserve as to what checks will be clearing them. Companies can then transfer the exact amount needed to pay those checks, while then investing the unneeded money or using other funds to pay down debt.