Who Owns U.S. Bank?

U.S. Bank's national banking charter traces to 1863, when predecessor First National Bank of Cincinnati was chartered under the National Bank Act, one of the earliest such charters in the country. The Minneapolis side of the lineage includes First National Bank of Minneapolis, founded in the same era.

The modern holding company was established in 1968 as First Bank System Inc., which built a franchise across the upper Midwest. In 1997, First Bank System acquired U.S. Bancorp of Portland, Oregon, and adopted the U.S. Bancorp name. A 2001 merger with Milwaukee's Firstar Corporation kept the Minneapolis headquarters and consolidated the U.S. Bank brand.

Growth continued through acquisitions of community banks, branches, and payments operations, including merchant processor NOVA, which became part of Elavon. The largest deal in company history closed in 2022: the approximately $8 billion acquisition of MUFG Union Bank added roughly a million customers and hundreds of branches across California, Washington, and Oregon, transforming U.S. Bank's West Coast presence.

Under CEO Andy Cecere and then Gunjan Kedia, who took over in April 2025, the bank invested in digital banking, payments, and treasury management. In 2025 it posted record net revenue of $28.7 billion, and in January 2026 it announced an agreement to acquire institutional trading and investment banking firm BTIG for up to $1 billion, expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.