MUFG Union Bank Receives "Outstanding" CRA Rating From Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Rating reflects significant investments in low- and moderate-income communities over a three-year examination period

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Jun 30, 2017, 12:08 ET

NEW YORK, June 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MUFG Union Bank, N.A., today announced that it has earned an Outstanding rating from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) following its most recent Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Performance Evaluation. The rating is an acknowledgement of the bank's significant community lending, investment and service accomplishments and demonstrates its commitment to robust reinvestment in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities.

Since 1977, the CRA has encouraged banks to meet the credit needs of all of their communities, whether low-, moderate- or high-income neighborhoods. Banks' credit and lending practices must also be consistent with safe and sound operations. In announcing the rating, the OCC highlighted a variety of the bank's achievements during the evaluation period, which ran from January 1, 2012 until December 31, 2014. These include:

Lending levels that reflect good responsiveness to community credit needs
A high volume of community development loans, which were responsive to identified needs across the bank's footprint
Excellent levels of qualified investments focused on affordable housing and small
business development needs
A good geographic distribution of loans for small businesses and home mortgages
An excellent distribution of branch offices that makes products and services readily
accessible to those of different income levels
A satisfactory distribution of home mortgages and small business loans made across all income and revenue levels
Being highly responsive and employing innovative community development services

"MUFG Union Bank is gratified by the OCC's 'Outstanding' rating, and welcome it as validation of our intensive efforts to invest in all facets of our marketplace, including LMI communities," said MUFG Union Bank President and CEO Steve Cummings. "I'm grateful to our customers, employees, community partners and other stakeholders for their support and collaboration to help us earn this prestigious designation."

The OCC conducted a comprehensive analysis that examined a wide variety of elements, including MUFG Union Bank's residential lending-related loans, small loans to businesses and farms, community development lending and investments, branch distribution and more.

"We consider this rating to be a meaningful validation of our commitment to community investment to date, and inspiration for all of us to continue ensuring that serving LMI communities remains at the heart of our work," said Tim Wennes, West Coast President. "Beyond a requirement of CRA, we consider community reinvestment to be a core part of our mission and a rewarding opportunity to put our bank's values into action."

In calendar year 2014, the final year of the OCC's Evaluation Period, MUFG Union Bank's CRA-related loans and activities totaled $8.4 billion, representing 8.4 percent of the bank's average annual assets. That exceeded the commitment established in the bank's Community Service Action Plan (5.2 percent), as well as the Plan's aspirational target (6.5 percent). This included categories as diverse as mortgage lending and nonprofit loans, affordable housing investments, supplier diversity program funding and philanthropic investments.

In announcing its rating, another area highlighted by the OCC is MUFG Union Bank's award-winning high school branch program, which improves accessibility to bank services and products in LMI communities and enables students to gain practical experience related to business and finance. The student branch program has also been linked to high graduation rates, college enrollment and career readiness.

"The student-run branch program is a prime example of our innovative community development at work: a win-win program that benefits our stakeholders, LMI communities, and the bank itself," said Julius Robinson, the bank's Head of Corporate Social Responsibility. "By leveraging creative thinking and strategic collaboration with like-minded partners, we can accelerate meaningful change in our marketplace."

At the end of the OCC's evaluation period, the bank operated three high school branches in California. Since that time, the number of branches has grown to five, with a sixth expected to open at the end of 2017.

To read the MUFG Union Bank, N.A. OCC CRA Exam results click here.

For more information about the bank's involvement in the communities it serves, please visit, https://www.unionbank.com/global/about/communities/community-outreach/index.jsp.

About MUFG Union Bank, N.A.
MUFG Union Bank, N.A., is a full-service bank with offices across the United States. We provide a wide spectrum of corporate, commercial and retail banking and wealth management solutions to meet the needs of customers. We also offer an extensive portfolio of value-added solutions for customers, including investment banking, personal and corporate trust, global custody, transaction banking, capital markets, and other services. With assets of $116.1 billion, as of March 31, 2017, MUFG Union Bank has strong capital reserves, credit ratings and capital ratios relative to peer banks. MUFG Union Bank is a proud member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (NYSE: MTU), one of the world's largest financial organizations with total assets of approximately ¥303.3 trillion (JPY) or $2.7 trillion (USD)¹, as of March 31, 2017. The corporate headquarters (principal executive office) for MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation, which is the financial holding company and MUFG Union Bank, is in New York City. The main banking office of MUFG Union Bank is in San Francisco, California.

¹ Exchange rate of 1 USD=¥112.19 (JPY) as of March 31, 2017

About MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation
Headquartered in New York, MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation is a financial holding company and bank holding company with total assets of $149.7 billion at March 31, 2017. Its main subsidiaries are MUFG Union Bank, N.A. and MUFG Securities Americas Inc. MUFG Union Bank, N.A. provides an array of financial services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, and major corporations. As of March 31, 2017, MUFG Union Bank, N.A. operated 365 branches, comprised primarily of retail banking branches in the West Coast states, along with commercial branches in Texas, Illinois, New York and Georgia, as well as two international offices. MUFG Securities Americas Inc. is a registered securities broker-dealer which engages in capital markets origination transactions, private placements, collateralized financings, securities borrowing and lending transactions, and domestic and foreign debt and equities securities transactions. MUFG Americas Holdings Corporation is owned by The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc., which is one of the world's leading financial groups. Visit www.unionbank.com or www.mufgamericas.com for more information.