Utah’s first bank turns 150, touting its bond to ‘community’

From his second-floor office on downtown Salt Lake City’s Main Street, Zions Bank President Scott Anderson can see the office where Brigham Young gathered followers in 1873 to talk about starting a bank.

“It would be called Zion’s Savings, Bank and Trust,” Anderson said. “And the goal of that was to help people save, accumulate wealth, get loans for their business and their homes, and bring family members to Salt Lake from wherever they were.”

Zion’s Savings Bank and Trust officially opened its doors Oct. 1, 1873, in the midst of one of the country’s biggest financial crises — called The Panic of 1873 — and as other banks across the country were closing theirs. The bank recorded almost $6,000 in deposits from 46 depositors, according to bank records.

Five of the first depositors were women, during a time women were not typically allowed to open bank accounts without their husbands’ consent. Zions’ original bylaws stipulated that “all deposits made by minors or by married women shall be fully under their own control payable to them on their own receipt, without regard to any guardian or husband.”

Its name is shorter now and has lost the apostrophe, but 150 years later, Zions Bank is Utah and the Intermountain West’s oldest surviving bank. It has grown from one branch in downtown Salt Lake City to 121 branches in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming.

Zions Bank has weathered its share of financial storms, including a series of hits earlier this year. In the months leading up to its sesquicentennial (150th), Zions’ stock plunged in March as such regional banks as Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank were shutting down or being seized by regulators.

Zions Bank remained confident it would come out on top. Its deposit base, Anderson said, is “more granular” than Silicon Valley’s or First Republic’s, two of the banks that crashed earlier this year. Nearly 60% of its deposits are insured.

Shares of Zions Bancorporation, the bank’s parent company, closed at $33.33 on the Nasdaq exchange Wednesday. The stock hasn’t gone back to the $50 price levels it enjoyed before March’s decline, but it has remained more or less stable since then.

Most fundamentally, Anderson said, the bank’s mission has remained the same in its 150 years: Creating value in the community it serves.

“I really believe that the banks that are most successful have strong ties to their customers, and they have strong ties to their communities,” Anderson said.

Community banking, business legacy

Bill Coker almost lost the building for Red Iguana 2.

When the co-owner and CEO of the Salt Lake Mexican restaurant was ready to expand to a second location in 2009, Coker said the bank he had been working with missed a deadline for an appraisal while in escrow for the site.

“I knew we would lose the property and I really wanted that location,” Coker said.

Enter Zions Bank. Coker said Zions was able to keep the building in escrow and get a loan approved so that Coker could close in the building that now houses Red Iguana 2, at 866 W. South Temple in Salt Lake City.

“That has become a major, major part of Red Iguana’s success,” Coker said.

It’s impossible to think of business in Utah without thinking of Zions Bank, said Steve Starks, CEO of Larry H. Miller Company.

“The story of Zions’ evolution is story of Utah’s evolution,” Starks said. “I’ve learned over the years and in my career, if there’s anything really important taking place in the community, Zions is either leading or supporting that effort in a major way.”

The bank’s fingerprints are everywhere. It sponsors events and nonprofits, including the Utah Pride Festival and the Sundance Institute (and it was one of the biggest donors to the Salt Lake Tribune in 2022). It is the “official bank” of the Utah Jazz. It was one of the biggest lenders of the Paycheck Program in the country. Anderson has been called the ”unelected governor of Utah” and the bank helped the Utah Legislature shape its financial literacy education requirements.

It is this investment in the community, Anderson said, that keeps Zions afloat in turbulent times. And it is not entirely altruistic.

“There is a selfish side,” Anderson said. “If everyone does better, the bank will do better. It should be a win-win.”

It also keeps the bank relevant in the face of rapidly evolving financial technology. Financial services, including finance technology, is Utah’s largest and fastest-growing targeted industry, according to the state. Zions is a player in the fintech world; it opened a technology center and headquarters in Midvale a year ago and became one of the largest tech employers in the state, Anderson said.

“You think of all the technology banks have,” Anderson said — from ATMs to mobile banking — “banking has really become a technology company.”

But, Anderson said, Zions uses technology to help its people, not replace them. Zions branches still have human bankers at each one; its online loan application has a chat function that connects users with real bankers, and gives them the option to call in or schedule an in-person visit.

“So you’ve really tied technology with the banker,” Anderson said. “Banking is still a business that is based on trust. Banking is still a local business.”

Lavanya Mahate, owner of Saffron Valley restaurants and Biscotts Bakery, said she uses Zions’ online banking every day. But she also visits a Zions branch every other week.

“I know the managers by name,” Mahate said. “We have great working relationships.”

Looking back, planning ahead

Zions Bank was owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for its first 84 years. Its presidents were church leaders, and their terms were generally lifetime positions, according to the bank.

The church sold majority control of the bank and its four branches in 1960 to Keystone Insurance and Investment Company (now Zions Bancorporation), led by Roy Simmons. That was the beginning of the bank’s second chapter, Anderson said, during which it rapidly expanded into three more states and invested more heavily in technology.

The bank’s future includes more technology investments, Anderson said, but it will always look back, even as it looks forward. The board recently signed a statement of values that draw on the bank’s “foundational values.”

“We’re going to continue to be a part of the community, continue to provide banking services,” Anderson said. “We’re going to continue to donate and and work with the community to make it prosper.”

Shannon Sollitt is a Report for America corps member covering business accountability and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.