U.S. Bancorp (stylized as us bancorp) is an American multinational banking institution headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware. It is the 7th-largest bank in the United States as of March 2026. As the largest bank in the Midwestern United States, it is considered a domestic systemically important bank (D-SIB) by the Federal Reserve. It is the parent company of its primary operating entity, U.S. Bank National Association, which does business as U.S. Bank (stylized as us bank). The company provides banking, investment, mortgage, trust, and payment services products to individuals, businesses, governmental entities, and other financial institutions.
The firm's early history can be traced to 1891, operating under the second-oldest banking charter granted in 1863 following the passage of the National Bank Act. Since inception, dozens of regional mergers and acquisitions throughout the Upper Midwest and Western United States led to the creation of modern U.S. Bancorp. As a diversified holding company, U.S. Bancorp has acquired multiple subsidiaries since the late 2010s. Its retail credit card offerings are provided via the Visa network in the U.S. and abroad.
U.S. Bancorp's annual revenue levels have it ranked on the Fortune 500, with its public stock trading within both the S&P 500 and S&P 100 indexes. It was included in the 2024 Forbes Global 2000 for its sales, profitability, asset base, and market value, among other financial institutions. U.S. Bancorp sponsors a variety of cultural events, transportation hubs, and sporting venues, including U.S. Bank Stadium. U.S. Bank is one of the largest asset custodians in the country with more than $11.7 trillion under administration as of June 2025.
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History
The U.S. Bank name first appeared as United States National Bank of Portland, established in Portland, Oregon, in 1891. In 1902, it merged with Ainsworth National Bank of Portland, but kept the U.S. National Bank name. It changed its name to the United States National Bank of Oregon in 1964.
The central part of the franchise dates from 1864, with the formation of First National Bank of Minneapolis. In 1929, that bank merged with First National Bank of St. Paul (also formed in 1864) and several smaller Upper Midwest banks to form the First Bank Stock Corporation, which changed its name to First Bank System in 1968.
In the eastern part of the franchise, Farmers and Millers Bank in Milwaukee opened its doors in 1853, growing into the First National Bank of Milwaukee and eventually becoming First Wisconsin and ultimately Firstar Corporation. In Cincinnati, First National Bank of Cincinnati opened for business on July 13, 1863, under National Charter #24—the charter that U.S. Bancorp still operates under today, and one of the oldest active national bank charters in the nation. U.S. Bancorp claims 1863 as its founding date. Despite having started up in the midst of the Civil War, First National Bank of Cincinnati went on to survive many decades to grow into Star Bank.
U.S. Bancorp of Oregon era
In January 1969, the U.S. National Bank of Oregon reorganized as a holding company, U.S. Bancorp, after receiving authorization from its bank directors on September 9, 1968 and subsequently receiving legal approval to proceed from the Comptroller of the Currency on November 28, 1968. LeRoy B. Staver, president, and chief executive officer of the bank, was appointed chairman and chief executive officer for the new holding company while Robert B. Wilson was appointed president of the holding company and also executive vice president for the bank. Wilson later resigned as president in December 1972 and his position was filled eight months later by John A. Elorriaga.
Staver retired in October 1974 and was succeeded by John Elorriaga who was promoted to chairman and chief executive officer while Carl W. Mays Jr was named president in Elorriaga's place.
A major change in the organization of leadership in the U.S. Bancorp of Oregon occurred in August 1983. Although Elorriaga remained as chairman and chief executive officer for the firm, Mays was appointed to the new position of executive assistant to the chairman while Edmund P. Jensen was appointed president as a replacement to Mays, and Roger L. Breezley was appointed to the new post of chief operating officer.
In December 1986, U.S. Bancorp of Oregon announced the pending acquisition of the Forest Grove, Oregon-based Valley National Corporation (not to be confused with the Phoenix, Arizona, company of the same name) with its five-branch Valley National Bank of Forest Grove subsidiary for $13.7 million (~$33.2 million in 2024) in stock. U.S. Bancorp of Oregon made its first acquisition outside the state of Oregon by announcing in December 1986 the pending acquisition of the Spokane, Washington-based Old National Bancorp with its Old National Bank of Washington and First National Bank of Spokane subsidiaries for $174 million (~$421 million in 2024). The acquisition was completed in July 1987 on the first day that the state of Washington had allowed bank acquisitions by out-of-state companies. In December 1986, U.S. Bancorp of Oregon announced the pending acquisition of the Camas, Washington-based Heritage Bank for $2.8 million (~$6.78 million in 2024).
In May 1987, U.S. Bancorp of Oregon announced the pending acquisition of the Seattle, Washington-based Peoples Bancorp with its Peoples National Bank subsidiary for $275 million (~$649 million in 2024) in stock. The acquisition was completed in December 1987. After the acquisition, Peoples and Old National were combined to form U.S. Bank of Washington. John Elorriaga retired as chairman of the board and chief executive officer in November 1987 and was replaced by Roger L. Breezley while Jensen continued as president. In December 1987, U.S. Bancorp of Oregon announced the pending acquisition of the Bellingham, Washington-based Mt Baker Bank for $25 million (~$59 million in 2024). U.S. Bancorp of Oregon entered the state of California by announcing in April 1988 the pending acquisition of the Eureka, California-based Bank of Loleta with seven branch offices in Humboldt and Del Norte counties for $15.3 million (~$34.9 million in 2024) in cash. The acquisition was completed in December 1988 and was renamed U.S. Bank of California.
First Bank System era
In March 1997, the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based First Bank System announced the pending acquisition of U.S. Bancorp of Oregon for $9 billion (~$16.3 billion in 2024) in stock. At the time of the announcement, U.S. Bancorp of Oregon had banking offices in Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho and Utah while First Bank System had banking offices in Minnesota, Colorado, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Wyoming. Under the terms of the acquisition, First Bank System was the nominal survivor, and the newly merged company was headquartered in Minneapolis. However, it took the more recognizable U. S. Bancorp name. John F. Grundhofer, chairman and chief executive of First Bank, was appointed president and chief executive of the new company while Gerry B. Cameron, chairman, and chief executive of U.S. Bancorp of Oregon, was appointed chairman of the new company, which he held until his retirement in 1998. The acquisition was completed in August 1997. Approximately 4000 jobs were eliminated, mostly in Portland.
First Bank System can trace its roots to the formation of First National Bank of Minneapolis in 1864. In 1929, the First National Bank of Minneapolis joined with the First National Bank of St. Paul to form a joint holding company for both banks that was called the First Bank Stock Corporation, while keeping both subsidiary banks legally separate. The new holding company quickly grew by acquiring other banks in the four-state region before the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 prohibited such actions. First Bank Stock Corporation was renamed First Bank System Inc. in 1968.
In September 1997, the new U.S. Bancorp (having dropped the "of Oregon" suffix), formerly First Bank System, announced the pending acquisition of the St. Cloud, Minnesota-based Zappco, Inc. with its three banks and six banking locations for an undisclosed amount. At the time of the announcement, U.S. Bancorp had more than 1,000 banking offices in the states of Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, California, Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, Nevada, South Dakota, Montana, Iowa, Illinois, Utah, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Wyoming. The acquisition was completed in December 1997.
In March 1998, U.S. Bancorp announced the pending acquisition of the Vancouver, Washington-based Northwest Bancshares with its 10-branch offices Northwest National Bank subsidiary for an undisclosed amount. In October 1998, the U.S. Justice Department agreed to allow the acquisition to proceed on the condition that one of the Northwest National Bank branch offices was to be sold. The acquisition was completed in December 1998 after U.S. Bancorp sold the requested banking office to Centennial Bank of Eugene.
Firstar era
In October 2000, Firstar Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, announced the pending acquisition of U.S. Bancorp for $21 billion (~$36.2 billion in 2024) in stock. The merger was completed on February 27, 2001. While Firstar was the nominal survivor, the merged company took the U.S. Bancorp name and moved to old U.S. Bancorp's headquarters in Minneapolis. Under the merger agreement, Jerry Grundhofer, president and chief executive officer of Firstar, would continue in those positions in the combined company while his older brother, John Grundhofer, chairman, president and chief executive officer of U.S. Bancorp, would serve as chairman of the board in the combined company until his planned retirement on December 31, 2002. The merged company retained some administrative functions in Milwaukee and Cincinnati.
To allow the merger to proceed, the U.S. Department of Justice required Firstar to sell 11 branch offices in the Minneapolis-area and 2 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Bremer Bank of Saint Paul, Minnesota, purchased the 11 Minneapolis-area Firstar offices while Liberty Bank of West Des Moines, Iowa, purchased the 2 Council Bluffs offices.
Firstar Corporation traced its roots to the founding of the Farmer's and Millers Bank in Milwaukee in 1853, which by 1919 evolved into First Wisconsin National Bank. However, the Firstar that took over U.S. Bancorp in 2001 was actually the same company and leadership that acquired Firstar 27 months earlier in 1998, namely Star Banc Corporation. That bank, in turn, traced its roots to the founding of First National Bank of Cincinnati in 1863. Jerry Grundhofer and his team from Star Banc were instrumental in both acquisitions.
Present-day U.S. Bancorp retains Star Banc's pre-1998 stock price history. As mentioned above, it claims 1863 as its founding date, and operates under the charter originally granted to First National Bank of Cincinnati. Additionally, all SEC filings before 1998 are under Star Banc, and all filings from 1998 to 2000 are under Firstar.
In April 2001, the new U.S. Bancorp announced the pending acquisition of all 20 branch offices in California of the Encino-based Pacific Century Bank from its Honolulu-based parent Pacific Century Financial Corporation. The acquisition was completed in September 2001. In July 2002, U.S. Bancorp announced the pending acquisition of all 57 retail banking branches of the San Mateo, California-based Bay View Bank from its Bay View Capital Corporation parent for $429 million (~$713 million in 2024). The acquisition was completed in November 2002. On New Years Day 2003, John Grundhofer retired as chairman of U.S. Bancorp and handed the position to his younger brother Jerry Grundhofer, who added the title of chairman to his other positions of president and chief executive officer in the corporation.
US Bancorp in the Great Financial Crisis (GFC)
On November 14, 2008, the U.S. Treasury invested $6,599,000,000 (~$9.41 billion in 2024) in preferred stock and warrants in the company via the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Weeks earlier, U.S. Bancorp had entered into acquisition talks with National City Corp. and had made an offer to buy National City until PNC Financial Services used its portion of TARP funds to outbid U.S. Bancorp and acquire National City instead. Had National City accepted U.S. Bancorp's offer, U.S. Bancorp would have expanded into Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania (three states that as of 2023 still don't have a retail presence from U.S. Bancorp), but major divestments would've been made in Midwestern states, especially Ohio.
On November 21, 2008, the company acquired the failed Downey Savings & Loan Association and also the failed Pomona First Federal Bancorp in a transaction facilitated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for an undisclosed amount. Downey Savings had 170 branch offices in California and five branch offices in Arizona while PFF Bank had 38 branch offices in Southern California.
In April 2009, U.S. Bancorp acquired the assets and deposits of the failed Ketchum, Idaho-based First Bank of Idaho in a transaction facilitated by the FDIC. First Bank of Idaho had seven offices in Idaho and Wyoming, some of which operated under the name First Bank of the Tetons.
On June 17, 2009, the company redeemed the $6.6 billion of preferred stock and on July 15, 2009, it completed the purchase of a warrant held by the U.S. Treasury Department. This effectively concluded U.S. Bancorp's participation in the Capital Purchase Program. It was the first bank to repay the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.
US Bancorp post-GFC
On October 5, 2009, the company announced its acquisition of the $8 billion (~$11.3 billion in 2024) mutual fund administration and accounting servicing division of Fiduciary Management, Inc. for an undisclosed amount. On October 7, 2009, the company agreed to buy the bond trustee business of First Citizens Bank, a subsidiary of First Citizens BancShares Inc. for an undisclosed amount.
On October 20, 2009, the company completed a transaction to purchase the failed FBOP Corporation's nine subsidiary banks from the FDIC for an undisclosed amount. The banks included BankUSA, National Association with 2 offices in Arizona, Cal National Bank with 68 offices in California, Citizens National Bank with 1 office in Texas, Community Bank of Lemont with 1 office in Illinois, Madisonville State Bank with 1 office in Texas, North Houston Bank with 1 office in Texas, Pacific National Bank with 17 offices in California, Park National Bank with 31 offices in Illinois, and San Diego National Bank with 28 offices in California.
Since the company did not have a previous presence in Texas nor want one in the near future, the company subsequently sold the three banks in Texas in 2010 to Houston-based Prosperity Bancshares for an undisclosed amount. Each of the banks had one office each.
In October 2009, BB&T Corporation (now Truist) announced the pending sale of its Nevada banking operations to U.S. Bancorp for an undisclosed amount. BB&T had just acquired the 21 offices in Nevada through a transaction facilitated by the FDIC for disposal of the assets and deposits of the failed Alabama-based Colonial Bancgroup but BB&T had no desire to expand west of Texas while it wanted to keep the other Colonial former locations in the Southeastern United States. The acquisition was completed in January 2010.
In July 2010, U.S. Bancorp sold its FAF Advisors subsidiary to Nuveen Investments for $80 million (~$112 million in 2024) and a 9.5% stake in Nuveen.
In 2010, Huntington Bancshares announced it would take over the leases of bank branches inside Giant Eagle locations in Ohio, largely replacing U.S. Bancorp but also replacing branches from FirstMerit Corporation (which itself would be acquired by Huntington in 2016) and Citizens Financial Group; the deal didn't affect Citizens branches inside Giant Eagle locations in Pennsylvania. The deal mostly didn't affect U.S. Bancorp, but it did lead to the withdrawal from the Youngstown, Ohio market since U.S. Bancorp's only branches in the area were inside Giant Eagle locations; the branches had been a holdover from the Firstar days. By 2020, U.S. Bancorp had organically become Ohio's largest bank by deposits despite not having a presence in the Youngstown and Toledo markets and ahead of major banks based in Ohio (Huntington, Fifth Third Bank & KeyBank), PNC Bank, and Chase Bank.
Notable Community Work
In May 2020, the U.S. Bancorp Center in downtown Minneapolis was damaged by rioting during the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Two other bank branch locations on East Lake Street in Minneapolis were destroyed by arson. US Bancorp rebuilt the damaged branch location at 919 East Lake Street and donated the property at 2800 East Lake Street for redevelopment as an affordable housing project.
In May 2022, Bancorp announced a five-year community benefits plan, developed in coordination with the NCRC and the CRC as part of the planned acquisition of MUFG Union Bank. The $100 billion community plan is set over five years and is focusing on supporting equitable access to capital for low- and moderate-income communities and communities of color.
Controversies
In December 2019, the bank dismissed Emily James, a Portland, Ore., call-center employee, and her supervisor, after James gave $20 (~$25.00 in 2025) of her own money to Marc Eugenio. On Christmas Eve, Eugenio ran out of gasoline and cash, and he was stranded at a gas station when his U.S. Bank debit card was rejected because funds he had deposited two days earlier had not yet been released into his account. After an unsuccessful attempt to release the funds, James met Eugenio at the gas station during her break and offered him $20 from her own pocket as a Christmas Eve act of kindness. She was fired from her job for violating company policy, but rehired after an investigation prompted by an article from Nicolas Kristof was published in The New York Times.
Notable corporate buildings
U.S. Bank owns corporate naming rights to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.