By Bria Overs | Word In Black
(WIB) – There have never been enough Black-owned banks. What once was 134 financial institutions is now around 20, with a majority located across the East Coast, Midwest, and South. But later this year, that list could grow by one — and in an unlikely location.
Redemption Holding Company (RHC), a Black-led investment group led by former White House Policy Advisor under former President Donald Trump and Regional Administrator for the Small Business Administration, Ashley D. Bell, is planning to acquire Utah-based Holladay Bank & Trust. If all goes well, the 50-year-old bank could soon be Redemption Bank, becoming not only Black-owned but also the only Minority Depository Institution — a minority-owned bank providing financial services to underserved communities — west of Texas.
Bell is the CEO and board chairman of RHC and the CEO of Ready Life, a Black-owned fintech startup working with underrepresented and underserved communities to build pathways to homeownership. Collaborating with Bell for both ventures is Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center and the youngest child of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, who will be the senior vice president for impact banking.
Outside of acquiring the bank, the goal is to “partner with other MDIs” and “create a full-service banking platform,” the RHC website says, that serves consumers and business owners, offering lending products like mortgages and loans. While Black people account for 1.6% of the population in Utah, Bell believes the state is favorable as far as bank regulations go.
“Once we get the bank charter done, I think we’ll be game on,” Bell says. “We’re trying something that’s never happened before. There’s never been a group of Black investors to buy a non-Black bank, a white-owned bank, especially one that is as extraordinarily homogeneous as Salt Lake City.”
Changing the Game for Black FinTechs
Ready Life is not the only Black-owned fintech on the market. There is Greenwood, founded by U.S. Ambassador and former Mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, activist and rapper Michael “Killer Mike” Render, and Ryan Glover, founder of Bounce TV and Noontime Records. MoCaFi, founded and led by Wole Coaxum, is a financial services platform for Americans facing financial and economic hardships.
Financial technology companies are not banks. They partner with banks to bring the tech and financial operations together.
“All of us require a bank to operate, and the reality was there was no Black-owned bank that we could sit on top of to operate with the way we’re currently constructed,” Bell says. “Therefore, we are dependent on other communities and banks to allow us to do that service. So the goal and thinking was we need to own a bank that has the technological ability to serve fintech owners, but also be dynamic.”
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In his perspective, many Black-owned banks face adversity because they are located in and serve low-income areas. Banks rely on deposits and loan products. If the amount deposited and borrowed is low, it can prevent them from growing or even staying open.
CNBC reported that well-known banks like JPMorgan and Bank of America manage assets “worth well over $2 trillion.” OneUnited Bank, one of the largest Black-owned banks in the country, manages around $650 million. As of January 2024, Holladay Bank & Trust has about $61.8 million in assets.
Redemption Bank’s target is working-class Black Americans, Bell says. They want to work with those who are “trying to find the best way of using resources to accumulate wealth,” as well as small business owners “looking for access to credit to grow their businesses and to create jobs in their communities.”
The Man Behind the Plan
At 43, Bell is a high achiever. Originally from Gainesville, Georgia, he’s a graduate of Louisiana State University Law with an honorary doctorate in intercultural and urban studies from Lighthouse College. He started his career as a public defender, and at 27, he was elected Hall County, Georgia, commissioner — the youngest person ever to hold this position in the state.
In his practice, he transitioned to finance, focusing on public finance, taking an interest in helping cities with majority-Black populations.
Bell has been an entrepreneur since his 20s. He took this path because he “wanted to be able to hire people” like his former clients from when he was a public defender. “I think having more of us in our communities that can make that call about what and who has access to opportunities gives us a better chance to give it to more people.”
Bell tells Word In Black that it is unclear when regulators will approve the acquisition but feels “really good” about the potential outcome.
“The hardest part was raising the capital,” he says. “To be able to pull together African American investors to do that was the tough part. So I think having that part of the way, now it’s just going through the regulatory process, and we look forward to this year being a good one.”