Union Bank to Change Name Ahead of Foreign Bank Rule

Union Bank in San Francisco and its Japanese parent company plan a series of changes to its corporate names and structure, all in response to the Federal Reserve Board's plan to overhaul the way it supervises foreign banks.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MBFJF) said Friday that it will combine the $105 billion-asset Union Bank with its Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ branches in the U.S. into a single company to be called MUFG Union Bank. Mitsubishi also plans to replace the UnionBanCal holding company, which owns Union Bank, with a new entity to be called MUFG Americas Holdings.

The new company will replace the virtual holding company, BTMU Americas Holdings, that Mitsubishi UFJ announced in July.

As part of the change, the headquarters for MUFG Union Bank and MUFG Americas Holdings will move to New York from San Francisco. However, Union Bank will retain its current office space in San Francisco and there will be no job cuts, says Daniel Weidman, a Union Bank spokesman.

Masashi Oka, president and chief executive of Union Bank, and some other senior-level executives will technically move their executive offices to New York. But these executives will be "bi-coastal" and continue to maintain offices in both San Francisco and New York, Weidman says.

Union Bank executives have said they want the bank to be one of the 10 largest U.S. financial institutions by 2016. The name and corporate changes are part of that effort, Weidman says. Union Bank is also making the changes ahead of the Fed's foreign bank rule, which would require some foreign banks to form an intermediate holding company.

All of Union Bank's changes are subject to regulatory approval. Union Bank expects the changes to take effect by July 1.

Union Bank operates than 400 branches, mostly in California. Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ operates eight representative offices in the U.S., including locations in Atlanta, Dallas and Washington.

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