MUFG Union Bank

Union Bank

In 1914, Kaspare Cohn founded Kaspare Cohn Commercial & Savings Bank in Los Angeles. It was renamed Union Bank & Trust Company of Los Angeles in 1918. Harry Volk was recruited from Prudential Insurance Company as the bank's new CEO in 1957 and pioneered the use of the one-bank holding company, among other banking innovations.

Volk retired in 1980 after the purchase of the bank by London-based Standard Chartered Bank in 1979.

MUFG Bank, Ltd.

In May 1996, Mitsubishi Bank and the Bank of Tokyo merged.

In August 2008, Mitsubishi UFJ offered to buy the 35% of Union Bank it did not already own, which Union Bank accepted.

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.

In 2014, MUFG integrated the U.S. operations of its subsidiary The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU) with those of San Francisco–based Union Bank, N.A.

In April 2018, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (BTMU) was renamed to MUFG Bank, Ltd.

When it was called MUFG UnionBank, it was a subsidiary of intermediate holding company, MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation, and a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

Controversies

On October 19, 2004, the Federal Reserve Board announced that Union Bank had entered into a written agreement to avoid criminal prosecution for money laundering. Three years later, Union Bank was again accused of money-laundering and in September 2007, the bank agreed to pay $31.6 million in penalties and forfeitures to settle government claims that it had been implicated in an elaborate drug money laundering scheme involving Mexican exchange houses known as casas de cambio.