UMB's Profit Hurt by Scout Funds, New Expense Cuts Planned

By Chris Cumming October 28, 2015, 9:23 a.m. EDT 1 Min Read

M&A

UMB to Buy Marquette Financial in Minnesota for $183 Million

The $16.3 billion-asset UMB will pay $182.5 million in stock for the Marquette, which is owned by the Pohlad family. The acquisition, which values Marquette at 160% of its tangible book value, is expected to close in mid-2015.

By Paul Davis

December 15
Community banking

UMB Financial's 2Q Profit Falls on Weak Scout Investments' Revenue

UMB Financial in Kansas City, Mo., saw second-quarter profit decline as lower revenue from its Scout Investments subsidiary reduced fee income.

By Colin Wilhelm

July 29
Bank technology

UMB in Missouri Hires IBM Exec as Chief Information Officer

UMB Financial in Kansas City, Mo., has hired an IBM executive to be chief information officer.

By Jacob Passy

August 12

UMB Financial in Kansas City, Mo., reported lower third-quarter profit, due to weaker revenue from its Scout Funds arm and merger costs.

The $18.6 billion-asset company earned $22.5 million on the quarter, a 37% decline from the year before. Earnings per share fell 41% to 46 cents, which was 22 cents lower than the average estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

UMB also announced plans to aggressively cut costs, disclosing in a regulatory filing that it plans to reduce annual expenses by nearly $33 million by 2017. About 70% of the cost reductions will be associated with lower salaries and benefits, excluding $8 million in expected severance costs; the rest will involve business process improvements.

The objective is to lower UMB’s efficiency ratio to roughly 70%; that metric stood at 80.79% at Sept. 30.

The company did not disclose how many positions it plans to cut. Process improvements are expected to include reduced advertising, removing ATMs with lower profitability and adjusting or discontinuing certain rewards programs.

“While these initiatives involved difficult decisions, they are the right actions to take to get us closer to our efficiency goals and to operate in a leaner, healthier way,” Chief Executive Mariner Kemper said in the release.

Net interest income before the loan-loss provision rose 26% to $109.9 million, largely due to the addition of loans from its June acquisition of Marquette Financial in Minneapolis. The net interest margin increased by 20 basis points to 2.73%.

Noninterest income dropped 14% to $109.1 million, due mainly to lower advisory fees from Scout Funds, UMB’s asset-management arm. Scout Funds posted a 44.7% decline in advisory fee income. UMB also a $5 million loss on certain alternative investments, compared to a $2.5 million gain a year ago.

Noninterest expense rose 15% to $185.3 million on the quarter, 15% higher than a year ago. The increase was due to higher personnel costs associated with the Marquette purchase, as well as $4.5 million in integration expenses, including severance and tech upgrades.

Chris Cumming