Black investor group Redemption Holding Co. acquires Holladay Bank & Trust

Redemption Holding Co. (RHC), a Delaware public benefit corporation, has entered into an agreement to acquire Holladay Bank and Trust. If approved by regulators, the acquisition would mark the first time in American history that an existing commercial bank would become a black-owned Minority Depository Institution (MDI) through acquisition and the only black-owned bank serving the Mountain West.

RHC was formed specifically for the purpose of acquiring the Holladay-based institution and is seeking regulatory approval to become a registered bank holding company in connection with the acquisition.

Former White House policy advisor and Small Business Administration regional administrator Ashley D. Bell will serve as RHC’s executive chairman and chief executive officer. Bernice A. King, the daughter of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, will serve as the bank’s senior vice president of corporate strategy and alliances and also sit on its advisory board alongside director, co-founder, former NFL player and investor Dhani Jones. Bell and King previously co-founded the National Black Bank Foundation, which has steered $600 million of deal flow into black banks since 2020.

“Black banks make the American dream possible for all Americans by deploying resources that uniquely address the financial realities of communities that have been systematically excluded, overcharged and under-capitalized for hundreds of years,” Bell said. “Redemption will serve as a lifeline to the next wave of black and brown first-time home buyers and small-business entrepreneurs across the country.”

An RHC release said the formation of the firm and pending regulatory approval will reverse a half-century negative trend for America’s black-owned banking sector. In 1976, there were 50 black-owned banks in the United States. As of 2020, there were only 18 black-owned banks still operating and now just 16 remain, according to the FDIC. Redemption will become the 17th black-owned bank.

“In my father’s last public address on April 3, 1968, he preached the imperative to accelerate the financial inclusion of black Americans by supporting mission-driven black banks — something he called a ‘bank-in movement,’” King said. “More than half a century of struggle and incremental progress later, we’re making good on Daddy’s call to bank-in by creating new centers of opportunity for people of color, starting with this black-led bank acquisition. Redemption is just that: delivering families from the cycle of unjust financial exclusion and intergenerational poverty.”

As of Dec. 31, Holladay Bank and Trust, which was established in 1974 and is a Utah state-chartered commercial bank, had approximately $68 million in total assets and $56 million in total deposits. Its current management and staff will remain upon conversion to Redemption and be joined by an experienced management team and RHC’s board of finance and technology experts. Initial investors in RHC include a growing number of black doctors, lawyers and business leaders from across the country, the RHC statement said.

Holladay Bank and Trust is a Utah state-chartered commercial bank.