After the Mormons founded Salt Lake City, Mormon Leader Brigham Young looked out from his temple and concluded the church would do well to get into the money-changing business. Up and down the valley the "Gentiles" (non-Mormons) were taking the lead in opening rich mines, establishing basic industries, and providing banking services to Brigham's band. Moreover. Mormon businessmen needed capital in quantities that only the church would provide. Accordingly, in 1873 Young founded a Mormon bank, and the Latter Day Saints became the only U.S. religious institution to get into ranking in a big way.
The bank prospered with the Mormons. Over the years the Mormon Church acquired more business interests: real estate, hotels, a newspaper, a Salt Lake radio-TV station, farms and a sugar company—and two more banks, all three merged in 1957 into Zion's First National Bank. Its resources: $140 million. Today the church is estimated to be one of Utah's half a dozen largest industries. As a religious institution, it might have sought tax exemptions, but all along, the Mormons have scrupulously paid the same federal taxes as other private businesses. Nevertheless, there was plenty of criticism from competitors about Mormon 'temporal" activities.
Last week the Mormon Church got out of the banking business. In a surprise move, it sold its controlling interest of 146,540 shares in Zion's First National Bank to a group of private businessmen headed by Norge Chairman Judson S. Sayre, Kennecott Director Leland B. Flint, and Utah Loan Company Executive Roy W. Simmons. Sale price: $9,818,314. The explanation from the Mormon leaders: the time has passed when Brigham Young's Latter-Day Saints need place their trust only in church-backed business institutions.