BANCOHIO NATIONAL BANK was a major banking presence in the Cleveland area for more than a decade after its acquisition of Capital Natl. Bank. Capital Natl. was incorporated by Alex and Paul Wintner in 1929 as a state bank with $125,000 capital. Located at 1011 Huron Rd., Capital pioneered in mortgage loans guaranteed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) under the New Deal. By 1946 control of Capital Natl. had passed to new investors and it was sold again in 1963 to Joseph Cole and his group, who made it a subsidiary of Shelter Resources. The bank was rechartered as a federal institution in 1964 and doubled its assets within 2 years. In 1972 Capital Natl., then Cleveland's 6th largest bank, with $121.3 million in assets, was acquired by the Columbus-based BancOhio Natl. Bank, with assets of $2.327 billion the largest holding company in Ohio. (Holding companies enabled banks to acquire affiliates beyond the geographic and legal limitations imposed by law.) In 1981 the bank opened a Cleveland District Headquarters at 1404 E. 9th St.
In the 1980s, BancOhio was a state-wide retail bank with assets of $5.5 billion and 269 branches; however, it had grown too fast and had made poor-quality loans that clouded its earnings picture. In 1984, BancOhio merged with NATIONAL CITY CORP.