The story
In 1919, W.T. Kemper and Associates bought shares in City Center Bank, and R. Crosby Kemper became the president of the company. In 1926, the bank built a six-story headquarters, adding a drive-up service window in 1928. In 1934, the bank was renamed City National Bank and Trust Company and moved to Kansas City's financial center. In 1959, R. Crosby Kemper Jr. (a third generation banker from the Kemper family) became president of the bank and led the installation of its first computer processing system. City National acquired several other banks over the years as banking laws changed. In 1969, it reorganized as a holding company, Missouri Bancshares, which changed its name to United Missouri Bancshares (UMB) in 1971.
In 1987, UMB acquired FCB Corp. and its three banks in Southern Illinois. In 1992, UMB expanded into Colorado with the purchase of Valley Bank and National Bank of the West in Colorado Springs. UMB acquired Denver's Columbine National Bank in 1992, and in 1994, all of UMB's Colorado banks were merged into one entity, UMB Bank Colorado. To reflect its expansion outside of Missouri, UMB changed its name to the current UMB Financial Corporation in 1994. In 1995, UMB acquired Oklahoma Bank and its holding company, First Sooner Bancshares. That same year, UMB entered the online banking market in conjunction with Visa Interactive.
In 2001, UMB purchased Sunstone Financial Group Inc. and rebranded it to UMB Fund Services, Inc. It followed in 2002 with its purchase of State Street Bank & Trust Company of Missouri. In 2001 UMB also established Scout Investment Advisors Inc.
In February 2002, the UMB acquired naming rights to St. Louis' Riverport Amphitheatre and renamed it UMB Bank Pavilion. This agreement expired in 2006, after which Verizon Wireless purchased naming rights. In 2004, Peter deSilva became the president and Mariner Kemper became chairman and CEO of UMB Financial Corporation.
In June 2015, UMB acquired Marquette Financial Companies, which expanded its operations into the U.S states of Minnesota, Texas and Arizona.
In April 2017, the firm sold Reams Asset Management and Scouts Investments to Raymond James Financial for $172.5 million.
In December 2019, UMB had 91 branches located across eight U.S. states: Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arizona and Texas.
UMB acquired Heartland Financial in 2025, bringing it into five more states, including California, Minnesota, New Mexico, Iowa and Wisconsin (which used state and regional-focused brands for their ten banking divisions, all of which have taken the new UMB Bank name), and merged banking and marketing operations in full by the end of the year, with physical signage replaced with UMB branding in mid-October.
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As of January 2026, UMB has 211 domestic locations in 14 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin.
From Wikipedia’s article on UMB Financial Corporation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6