| Type | Commercial Bank |
|---|---|
| Industry | Banking |
| Founded | 1864 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Key people |
Tatsuo Tanaka, Chairman of the Board |
| Employees | Over 10,000[1] |
| Website | www.unionbank.com |
Union Bank, N.A., formerly known as Union Bank of California, N.A., is a full-service commercial bank providing an array of financial services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, and major corporations. Headquartered in San Francisco, Union Bank is a subsidiary of UnionBanCal Corporation.
According to the FDIC summary of deposits on June 30, 2010, Union Bank is the eighteenth largest bank in the United States and is California’s third-largest bank by deposits[2]. The bank has 403 banking offices in California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas and two international offices[3]. UnionBanCal Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., which is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: MTU).
On December 18, 2008, Union Bank of California, N.A. officially changed its name to "Union Bank, N.A." It also announced to customers in June 2009 that it would officially retire its red box logo and adopt a new corporate logo and image, which was launched on July 20.[4]
Union Bank was the first major California bank to offer seven-day-a-week banking when it opened its first supermarket branches in 1990; it now maintains 50 in-store branches. The bank has 608 ATMs throughout the U.S. It is a member of the STAR and CIRRUS systems. CIRRUS, Plus, MasterCard, VISA, Discover Card, and American Express cardholders can access Union Bank’s ATMs. The bank also belongs to the Star and Maestro point of sale networks.
HighMark Capital Management is Union Bank’s investment management subsidiary. The unit manages more than $16.1 billion in assets. The bank offers 25 proprietary mutual funds called HighMark Funds.
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In the early 1900s, Kaspare Cohn, a German immigrant with a fabric and clothing business, established Kaspare Cohn Commercial & Savings Bank in Los Angeles. In 1918, Kaspare Cohn Commercial & Savings Bank was renamed Union Bank & Trust Company of Los Angeles.
Union Bank & Trust Company of Los Angeles, under the direction of Harry Volk, shortened its name to Union Bank in 1958. The bank became a one-bank holding company, Union Bancorp, in 1967. That same year Union Bank formed its own wholly owned venture capital subsidiary Union Ventures, under the direction of its founder Donald Prell. Then in 1979 Standard Chartered Bank of London acquired Union Bank.
In Japan, Tsukumo Shokai, formed in 1870, and the Yokohama Specie Bank, founded in 1880, helped usher in a new era of modernization and foreign trade, and eventually bridged the Pacific to establish an influential presence in California. Yokohama Specie Bank opened an office in San Francisco in 1886. After World War II in 1947, Yokohama Specie Bank became The Bank Of Tokyo, Ltd., and in 1953 it established a San Francisco subsidiary called The Bank of Tokyo California (BOTC). Tsukumo Shokai was renamed Mitsubishi Shokai in 1873, and in 1972 it opened the first Mitsubishi Bank of California office in Los Angeles.
BOTC acquired Southern California First National Bank of San Diego and renamed it California First in 1975. Although majority-owned by BOTC, it started trading on the NASDAQ exchange. In 1988, California First Bank acquired Union Bancorp, retaining the Union Bank name.
On July 5, 1864, the Bank of California was founded, making it the first incorporated commercial bank in the West.
In 1984, the Bank of California became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Bank, which had been founded by former samurai Yataro Iwasaki in 1880.
In April 1996, The Mitsubishi Bank, Ltd. and The Bank of Tokyo, Ltd. merged in Japan. In San Francisco, The Bank of California and Union Bank consolidated into UnionBanCal Corporation, a bank holding company, and its primary subsidiary Union Bank of California, N.A. With the merger, Union Bank could now trace its history back to the founding of The Bank of California 132 years before. In 1999, UnionBanCal Corporation became a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:UB).[5]
In August 2008, Mitsubishi UFJ offered to buy the 35 percent of Union Bank it did not already own, which Union Bank accepted.[6] On November 4, 2008, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), announced that BTMU had successfully acquired all of the outstanding shares of UnionBanCal Corporation.[7] The acquisition of the shares was consummated through a cash tender offer followed by a second-step merger.
On April 30, 2010, Union Bank, N.A., acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of Everett, Washington-based Frontier Bank in a purchase and assumption agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).[8]
Also in April, Union Bank acquired the assets of Tamalpais Bank in Marin County, including seven branches. Federal regulators sold Tamalpais' assets to Union Bank, which rebranded all the acquired branches. [9]
The modern Union Bank was formed in 1996 when The Bank of California and Union Bank combined to create Union Bank of California as part of the merger of The Mitsubishi Bank, Ltd., and The Bank of Tokyo, Ltd., which created the world’s largest bank, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Ltd. In 2008, Union Bank of California shortened its name to Union Bank, signaling both its strategic plan to expand its national brand recognition, and a new era in its banking history.
In 2010, Union Bank acquired San Rafael, California-based Tamalpais Bank and Everett, Washington-based Frontier Bank. Through purchase and assumption agreements with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Union Bank added 57 additional banking offices.
Today, UnionBanCal Corporation, the holding company of Union Bank, N.A., has $80.1 billion in assets. Its foundation is built on five lineages; three originate in California and two in Japan.[10]
The Union Bank Foundation strategically funds community and regional initiatives that will position the Foundation as an innovator of partnerships and a grant-maker helping to create and sustain healthy communities. The Foundation proactively invests in the communities in which the bank and its businesses operate, targeting its resources to benefit low- to moderate-income populations. In order to achieve greater impact in the targeted communities, the Foundation focuses on the strategic program categories of community economic development, affordable housing, education and the environment.[11]
Union Bank's Board of Directors approves the bank's Community Service Action Plan (CSAP), which is used to ensure the bank's compliance with Community Reinvestment Act requirements. The CSAP targets seven key areas for support and services: affordable housing, banking services, community outreach, corporate contributions, low-income consumer loans, small business loans and assistance, and supplier diversity.[12]
| Key Areas | Bank Actions |
|---|---|
| Affordable Housing | Supports organizations that provide basic shelter for low- to moderate-income individuals; finances construction, purchase, refinance, and rehabilitation of low-income housing units |
| Banking Services | Provides special services to help low-income individuals manage funds, including: low-cost checking and savings, government check cashing services, and alternative services such as Cash & Save |
| Community Outreach | Offers community outreach efforts, including: Branch involvement in local community activities; Communication between bank and community leaders; Promotion of small business lending to minorities and low-income individuals |
| Corporate Contributions | Annually awards a total of 2 percent of the bank's after-tax earnings to nonprofits through the bank and foundation |
| Low-income Consumer Loans | Makes loans available to applicants with gross family income within guidelines established by Housing and Urban Development |
| Small Business Loans and Assistance | Makes Small Business Administration-guaranteed loans to qualified borrowers; issues credit to minority- and woman-owned small businesses |
| Supplier Diversity | Procures goods and services from minority- and woman-owned vendors |
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