How Two Billionaires Rescued a Union Bank

Amalgamated Bank, the nation’s largest union-owned lender, was almost ruined after the housing bust by soured real estate deals. By August 2011, it was on its way to a $12 million annual loss, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ordered it to clean up its act. “Regulators were threatening significant sanctions and possibly closing,” says Chief Executive Officer Ed Grebow. “We desperately needed capital.”

The bank’s controlling owner, Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, didn’t have the money, so Amalgamated turned to an unlikely source: billionaires Wilbur Ross and Ron Burkle, whose investment firms put in about $50 million each in April 2012, taking a 40 percent stake in the bank. “Frankly, there weren’t a lot of other people standing in line around the bank willing to put that kind of money into it,” says Noel Beasley, chairman of Amalgamated and president of the 80,000-member Workers United. “I didn’t have many friends who had $50 million.”