Salt Lake City—Redemption Holding Co. (“Redemption”) has filed for federal regulatory approval to proceed with its planned acquisition of Salt Lake City-based Holladay Bank & Trust after securing binding commitments for the requisite funding needed to proceed with acquisition, clearing the first of several federal regulatory hurdles toward creation of the first Black-owned bank between Houston and Los Angeles.

Ashley Bell, Redemption Holding’s CEO and board chairman, praised Utah

backers for recognizing Redemption’s capacity to generate unparalleled investment during an historically difficult banking landscape, marked by anemic private backing.

“We are encouraged at how the Utah business community has embraced Redemption’s vision of ensuring that equitable access to capital will expand, not contract,” Bell said.

Although not an exhaustive list, early Redemption investors include the Sorenson Impact Foundation, the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, the Garff Family Foundation, the Larry H. Miller Family Foundation, the Greg and Jacki Zehner Foundation and ATHOS Private Wealth.

Redemption has secured financial commitments from  four of Utah’s most generous philanthropic families – the Sorensons, Millers, Eccles, and Garffs.

The transaction is slated to create only the  24th Black-owned financial institution in the nation and the first in U.S. history not physically located within an economically vulnerable community. 

“Salt Lake City boasts one of the nation’s fastest-growing populations, and we are thrilled to join the ranks of lenders eager to help the Mountain West capitalize on a vibrant tech sector and an influx of young talent,” said Bruce Jensen, who will become the bank’s CEO following the acquisition.

Jensen, who currently serves as a consultant on bank strategy, has had a 40-plus-year career in banking, most recently as founder and CEO of Town & Country Bank in Utah, which was acquired by People’s Intermountain Bank in 2017.

Following the acquisition, Redemption’s and the bank’s board of directors will include Bell; Gary Brantley, chief information officer for the NFL; Sean Prendergast, CFO of Major League Soccer; and serial entrepreneur and former corporate counsel for Ford Motor Co. Tamira Chapman, as well as Cordell Carter, Bruce Jensen, and Derrick Mitchell. 

Furthermore, Leonard Springs, a longtime bank executive, and a former member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Board of Directors, will serve on the Redemption board.

“We could not be more confident in the experience and expertise our board convenes, and we are fortunate in Mr. Jensen to have tapped a former Utah Bankers Association board member and Utah Business CEO of the Year as our inaugural CEO,” Bell said.

Please read below for investor quotes.

What Redemption’s investors are saying:

“Since 2007, the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation has supported programs that enrich lives and communities in the areas of health and medicine; shelter and food security; education and skill development;  jobs and economic self-reliance; and cultural and spiritual enrichment,” said Gail Miller, chair of the Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation Board of Trustees.

“Our financial support of Redemption directly reinforces our commitment to creating viable pathways toward economic self-reliance for the communities we hold so dear,” Miller added.

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Lisa Eccles, president and COO of the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, said Redemption’s model will uplift customers and expand opportunity in the spirit of the Eccles family legacy.  “For nearly two centuries, Utah has been a place of opportunity for those who sought it out – that is our family’s story, and now it will also be Redemption’s story.  We are delighted to be a part of it.”  

Spencer Eccles, a co-founder of the Cynosure Group and a member of the Eccles Foundation’s Advisory Board, which served as an advisor to this historic acquisition, added that Redemption would strengthen Utah’s economic development profile.

“It’s a sound plan that will undoubtedly expand access to critical capital for small business owners, encourage outside investment and reflect a commitment to a nurturing business climate,” said Eccles, the former executive director of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, where he facilitated the expansion or relocation of strategic companies into the state.

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Katharine “Kathi” Garff, board chair for Ken Garff Enterprises, said she wanted her family’s foundation involved with the trailblazing venture the moment she learned about the involvement of Dr. Bernice A. King, the youngest daughter of slain civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Bernice King is slated to sit on Redemption’s advisory board and serve as senior vice president for Corporate Strategy and Alliance.

“Dr. Bernice A. King is an absolutely captivating presence, whose contributions to building a more equitable society have furthered her parents’ legacy. I had the honor of hosting her for a 2022 empowerment conversation for my nonprofit, Success in Education, and know that her integrity and genuine compassion for the communities she works to uplift reflect the foundation’s commitment to community improvement and reinvestment,” Garff said.

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Pioneering Salt Lake City-based impact investor Jim Sorenson said that, in addition to investing in companies that scale social impact, one of the other purposes of the Sorenson Impact Foundation is to provide catalytic capital to help fill the funding gap for companies that have developed innovative, high-growth and potentially disruptive solutions for the world’s greatest challenges, including expanding access to banking and financial services to those that have been left behind.

“Part of Redemption’s mission is to show ‘grace and mercy’ to Black business owners who have historically faced discrimination when seeking access to capital, and Sorenson Impact Foundation is proud to invest in the creation of a financial services institution whose impact potential outsizes our investment. We look forward to welcoming Redemption, a mission and values-aligned bank holding company, into our backyard of Holladay, Utah,” Sorenson said.

“Our investment into Redemption is an opportunity to enable deep impact in banking, an industry not typically known for impact,” said Sorenson Impact Foundation Investment Director Savannah Johnson, “as well as an opportunity to build a more racially inclusive banking ecosystem in Utah and beyond,” she added.

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“Utah boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates, is the fastest growing state in the nation, with exponential growth attributed to its great quality of life. These metrics and conditions in Utah are not by coincidence.  Nor is the creation of Redemption Holding Company, to establish Utah’s first Black-owned bank. It is a deliberative demonstration of our collective communities’ commitment to excellence and building financial access equity to unbanked communities as a national example for wealth-building activities with a focus on small businesses, low and moderate-income families and minorities as an investment to make a more perfect union.” 

Byron Russell is a board member at Redemption and Sarissa Capital. 

Contact Michael Ceraso, [email protected].