Zions Bancorporation
company
Zions Bancorporation is an American national bank headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It operates as a national bank rather than as a bank holding company and does business under the following seven brands: Zions Bank, Amegy Bank of Texas, California Bank and Trust, National Bank of Arizona, Nevada State Bank, Vectra Bank Colorado, and the Commerce Bank of Washington.
As of 2023, it had 416 branches and over 1 million customers, mostly in the western United States. It was founded by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1873, although the church divested its interest in the bank in 1960.
History
Zion's Savings Bank & Trust Company was established by the LDS Church in July 1873 to take over the savings department of the Deseret National Bank, the fourth attempt at creating a national bank in Utah, incorporated in 1868. It opened for business on October 1, 1873 and received $5,876 in deposits from 46 depositors. Brigham Young, LDS Church president, was the bank's first president, and the bank was intended to encourage immigration to Utah and further the financial interests of the church.
During the Panic of 1893, the bank managed to remain solvent despite difficulties.
During the early 20th century, Zions financed such firms as:
Bingham Copper Company (later Kennecott Utah Copper)
Salt Lake and Los Angeles Railroad Company (later Union Pacific Railroad)
Big Cottonwood Power Company (later Utah Power and then Rocky Mountain Power)
Salt Lake Gas Company (later Mountain Fuel Supply Company and then Questar Gas)
The Panic of 1907 was the lone interruption in the steady growth of Zions. However, deposits grew from $2 million in 1901 to $9 million in 1918.
The public source identifies “Zions Bancorporation” as company. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Zions, Bancorporation and company.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q205378. VIAF identifies the subject as 149369996. The Library of Congress control number is nr94007109. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2023, 1873, 1960 and 1868.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zions Bancorporation” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.