Redemption Bank investor details historic Utah bank deal
Alterity Capital partner Brandon Comer on Redemption Bank’s origins and sports investments.
In 2025, Redemption Holding Co. finalized a historic Utah acquisition, taking control of Holladay Bank & Trust and becoming the first Black-led investment group to own a bank in a Western U.S. state.
While the newly formed financial institution stands out because of its ownership, it also holds the distinction of being the first African-American-led bank in American history that it not physically located within an economically vulnerable community. Redemption Bank also stands only in the Rockies and helps fill a geographic void in what has long been considered a Black-banking dessert that stretches from Houston to Southern California.
Ashley Bell is a lawyer who served as White House Policy Advisor during the first Trump administration and is currently the Redemption Bank executive chairman. After years in the White House, Bell has taken government policy experience west, partnering with civil rights leaders, business executives and sports figures to launch the digital-first bank.
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General view of the Wasatch Range mountains ahead of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament on March 19, 2024, in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
The bank, with roughly $65 million in assets, will focus primarily on doing commercial lending and creating a dedicated team for small business loans.
"As Utah’s long-respected Holladay Bank and Trust transitions post-acquisition to Redemption Bank, our bank founders are quickly building a fully tech-enabled, concierge platform focused on supporting
entrepreneurs’ ability to become even more economically resilient," Bell told Gxstocks.
Bell added: "We found an exceptional business environment in Utah, specifically in Holladay, along with a bank that has a clean balance sheet and a state with the highest average return on assets for banks in the country. We are committed to competing in Utah to earn the business of customers from all backgrounds."
The original purchase of Holladay Bank was announced in 2023, but Bell said the transaction got delayed due to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank that year.
Former New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Dhani Jones is also a Redemption Bank investor. Jones also played for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Former NFL linebacker Dhani Jones participates in an NBCUniversal Press Tour in Aug. 2017 during CNBC's "Adventure Capitalists" session. (Chris Haston/NBCUniversal / Getty Images)
Collin Sexton, who is in his first season with the Charlotte Hornets, is also an investor.
Redemption Holding purchased Holladay with a group of investors that included Ally Financial Inc. and Central Bancorporation.
Brandon Comer, managing partner at Alterity Capital and Redemption Bank founding inventor, believed so strongly in the need for this type of banking in Utah that he put in his personal funds into it.
"We used to have over 140 Black-owned banks in the country, and (now) we are down to 20," Comer told Gxstocks. "Post-George Floyd, Ashley Bell and I came together and said, 'Look, a lot of corporations see the impact that Black banks can have and Black banks see the opportunity of partnering with corporations, but there needs to be an intermediary that help can bridge the two and really help seize this moment."
Dr. Bernice A. King, the daughter of the late civil rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was named Redemption Bank’s senior vice president for corporate strategy and serves on the company’s advisory board.
Dr. Bernice A. King arrives onstage during the 2026 Martin Luther King, Jr. Beloved Community Commemorative Service at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Jan. 19, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Paras Griffin / Getty Images)
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Redemption Bank marks the nation's 24th Black-owned bank, which are also referred to as Minority Depository Institutions (MDI). The last known MDI to launch, a federal designation for banks and unions that are owned or directed by minority groups, was in 2023 when Adelphi Bank was created.
