UMB earnings fall nearly 12.9 percent

UMB Financial Corp. said its earnings fell nearly 12.9 percent in the second quarter, largely from “headwinds” at its Scout Investments operation.

Kansas City-based UMB earned $30.2 million, or 65 cents a share, during April, May and June. A year ago it had earned $34.7 million, or 77 cents a share.

The quarter’s results benefited from completion of the purchase of Marquette Financial Cos., which boosted loans by $1 billion. UMB’s lending operations similarly boosted loans by $1 billion, UMB said.

Fee and other non-interest income fell 10.8 percent in the quarter compared with a year ago. UMB said much of the drop came at Scout Investments, which saw an $8.5 million, or 34.9 percent, decline in advisory fee income from the Scout Funds.

Chief executive Mariner Kemper said the company has cut some expenses in an effort to operate more efficiently.

“In the second quarter, we consolidated several customer-facing lines of business — primarily in the bank — to more efficiently deliver our customer service strategy. Additionally, we reorganized our technology, operations and related support groups,” Kemper said.

The changes should cut annual costs $3.6 million when complete.

Assets at the end of the quarter totaled $18.4 billion, including $8.9 billion in loans and $7.5 billion in securities. The recent profit equaled a 0.70 percent return on assets during the quarter.

This story was originally published July 28, 2015 at 5:41 PM with the headline "UMB earnings fall nearly 12.9 percent."