UMB Institutional Custody Business Grows to $250 Billion Assets Under Custody
UMB Bank announced today strong annual growth in its Institutional Custody business. As of March 31, 2026, the company held $250 billion in assets under custody, a 19% year-over-year increase from the same period in 2025, and a 298% increase since custody became a standalone business in 2019.
Led by Executive Vice President, Executive Director of Institutional Custody Amy Small, UMB's Institutional Custody division serves fund managers, municipalities, insurance providers, and other institutional clients.
Key growth drivers include:
- Strong client growth in municipal government and insurance sectors
- Increasing popularity of private funds and semi-liquid funds
- Need for liquidity solutions among asset managers, including reverse repo and, in collaboration with UMB's commercial bank, lines of credit
Many municipal governments and asset managers are now managing more complex investment portfolios than in past years and need additional middle-office services such as risk monitoring, collateral management, and treasury/liquidity support functions. This is clearly demonstrated by the significant growth UMB has experienced in this area.
"In addition to size, increased complexity is driving the need for specialized services for government and other political subdivisions," Small said. "We've seen a similar evolution of business needs among insurance companies, where middle-office services often focus on non-traditional asset servicing for alternative investments, foreign exchange capabilities, regulatory reporting, securities lending, and collateral management."
Most recently, the City of Fort Worth selected UMB to provide custodial services for their multi-billion-dollar operations. This work expands UMB's growing presence in Texas, which also includes commercial banking, private wealth management and retail banking.
"The City of Fort Worth manages a large and increasingly complex investment portfolio, and having a strong custodial partner is essential to maintaining effective oversight, liquidity, and operational efficiency," said Alex Laufer, City of Fort Worth assistant director of finance, city treasurer. "UMB's capabilities will help strengthen our operational infrastructure, enhance risk management, and support the City's long-term financial stewardship as our needs continue to evolve."
UMB's business has also grown as asset managers seek specialized support for private and semi-liquid funds. For these complex assets, robust middle-office services are crucial to an asset manager's operational efficiency. Some conversions from other custodians have involved bringing hundreds of funds and their corresponding demand deposit accounts (DDAs).
"Until 2018, UMB's custody function was an add-on service for clients of UMB Fund Services, which is a national leader in registered and alternative investment fund administration services," said Small. "Now, we collaborate closely with our fund accounting and administration colleagues for fund custody, while also serving custody-specific businesses across multiple market segments, including insurance, government, pensions, and other private sectors."
Finally, liquidity solutions among asset managers continue to have high demand as asset managers navigate volatile markets—a trend that is driving growth for UMB's custody and commercial teams. UMB offers both reverse repo and line of credit liquidity options for insurance companies, asset managers and other institutions that have custody assets with UMB. Notably, UMB offers committed reverse repo facilities in addition to the more common uncommitted facilities.
These complementary services recently resulted in UMB attracting a major, third-party provider of liquidity solutions to asset managers. In October 2025, ReFlow Fund, LLC (ReFlow) initiated both custody services and credit facilities with UMB. ReFlow aims to help mutual fund managers reduce the cost of redemptions—or shareholder flows—to other investors in a fund.
"UMB has been nothing short of amazing to work with," said Evan Smith of ReFlow Services, LLC. "Their ability to customize and automate custody solutions as well as integrate in-house credit facilities in a seamless way have been integral to us expanding our business."
As Institutional Custody has grown as a standalone business segment within UMB, the team has broadened its offerings and enhanced its technology, including:
- Developed enhanced straight through processing capabilities
- Launched in-house foreign exchange services
- Introduced self-service options for client convenience
- Added collective investment trustee services
- Expanded directed trustee role for insurance and pension clients
- Broadened ETF full-service capabilities
- Implemented FDIC sweeps for overnight cash balances
- Integrated custody and treasury platforms
"As the industry landscape and business needs continue to evolve, we are extremely focused on being proactive and mindful of what this means for our clients and how we can strategically serve and advise," Small said. "While we excel at completing the work we know and have today, we're equally intent on ensuring we understand and plan for how we serve our clients' future needs as well. We expect this, along with our continued focus on evolving with the industry and delivering best-in-class services and expertise, to continue to drive our business success now and in the future."
About UMB:
UMB Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:UMBF) is a financial services company headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. UMB offers commercial banking, which includes comprehensive deposit, lending, investment and retirement plan services; personal banking, which includes comprehensive deposit, lending, wealth management and financial planning services; and institutional banking, which includes asset servicing, corporate trust solutions, investment banking and healthcare services. UMB operates branches throughout Missouri, Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. As the company's reach continues to grow, it also serves business clients nationwide and institutional clients in several countries. For more information, visit UMB.com, UMB Blog, UMB Facebook and UMB LinkedIn.
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Media Contact
Stephanie Hollander
Stephanie.Hollander@umb.com
816.729.1027
Company Contact Details
UMB Financial Corporation
1010 Grand Boulevard
Kansas City, MO 64106
816.860.7000
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