Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is planning to leave its uptown office next summer after being in Charlotte for a few years.
The financial services firm’s parent company is based in Tokyo, and came to Charlotte in 2019 to open a center for technology, risk management and other functions for the Americas. But MUFG decided not to renew the lease for space at 201 S. College St. after it expires in July 2024, MUFG Bank (U.S.) managing director and chief communications officer Daniel Weidman told The Charlotte Observer in an email.
Weidman declined additional comment, and did not indicate what the impact would be on MUFG’s continued presence in Charlotte.
When MUFG announced plans for launching in Charlotte, the bank said it intended to employee 300 people, citing the city’s proximity to colleges and universities, and labor pool, as a way to recruit for jobs. The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance’s directory, MUFG exceeded hiring goals and was projecting closer to 400 employees.
The Charlotte location is one of many under MUFG’s Americas operation in the U.S., Latin America and Canada. Its work is focused on global corporate and investment banking, along with other services.
Some of those services including commercial banking, trust banking, credit cards, consumer finance and leasing. Its the seventh-largest financial institution in the world, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence, with assets of $2.9 trillion.
MUFG has 2,100 locations in more than 50 countries, with nearly 160,000 employees.
MUFG history includes samurais and the California Gold Rush
The company’s long and occasionally colorful history of banks and bank mergers that dates back to the 1600s.
That includes Mitsubishi Bank and Yokohama Specie Bank, which were created in 1880 by Iwasaki Yatarō, a former samurai. Yokohama was a forerunner of the Bank of Tokyo.
The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ was created around in 2006.
Its MUFG Americas division was formed through mergers of a number of banks, the earliest of which was the Bank of California. After it was established in 1864 it helped provide money for the California Gold Rush.
Later in 2018, BTMU and its related groups were renamed MUFG Bank, Ltd.
This story was originally published October 10, 2023, 6:00 AM.
