UMB Bank won’t apply for help from the federal government’s $700 billion bank-bailout fund. That’s the word from W. Thomas Chulick, chief executive of UMB’s St. Louis operations.

The government is using $250 billion of the bailout money to buy preferred stock in banks, and some other St. Louis bankers have said the capital is being offered on attractive terms. Chulick said the bank’s board decided against applying for two reasons: It doesn’t need the money, and it has concerns about strings that might be attached.

UMB’s Tier One capital ratio is 13.9 percent, Chulick said, more than double the regulatory minimum of 6 percent. That’s enough to “continue to execute on our strategies,” including possible acquisition opportunities, he added.

Other bankers may feel they have to seek the money because their competitors are doing so, but that’s not how UMB thinks, according to Chulick:

We’re going to remain independent, and that also means independence in our thinking. We don’t have to follow the herd.