A Black-owned investment group led by the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has announced an agreement to purchase Utah-based Holladay Bank and Trust.

Delaware-based Redemption Holding Company (RHC), which purchased the bank for an undisclosed amount, will become the only Black-owned bank serving the Mountain West region, pending federal regulatory approval.

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. Dr. 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.

Moreover, Dhani Jones, RHC's director co-founder, and former NFL player and investor, will steer assets for Holladay Bank and Trust, established in 1974, which as of Dec. 31, 2022, had approximately $68 million in total assets and $56 million in total deposits.

“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,’” Dr. Bernice King said in a statement. “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.”

Rebuilding America's Black banks

For many business owners in the U.S., Black banks provide funding opportunities to racialized entrepreneurs who have been turned down by major U.S. banks. As a result, companies have been pouring resources into creating Black-owned Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) that can support Black founders in underserved communities.

Recently, Baker Hughes, an energy technology company in the oil and gas sector, announced a $50 million investment to support a Texas' only Black-owned banking institution — the Unity Bank of Houston.

The same is occurring in Utah where RHC has now set up shop. The Black-owned bank in Salt Lake City will become the nation’s 17th Black-owned bank, down from 50 in 1976.

The RHC plans to work with other MDIs to provide national lending opportunities outside the Mountain West region. It also plans to create a full-service digital banking platform, offer small business lending, and provide mortgages in concert with major banks.

“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 in a statement. “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.”