Good corporate governance promotes ethical business practices, demands meticulous accounting policies and procedures and includes a structure with effective checks and balances. Corporate governance is vital to the continued success of U.S. Bancorp and the entire financial services industry. Our ethical standards have rewarded us with an enviable reputation in today’s marketplace — a marketplace where trust is hard to earn. Our shareholders, customers, communities and employees demand — and deserve — to do business with companies they can trust. U.S. Bancorp operates with uncompromising honesty and integrity. Our Board of Directors has had a Corporate Governance Committee for many years. We have implemented Corporate Governance Guidelines in response to today’s heightened concern. Our Corporate Governance Guidelines are available for you to view on our Internet web site at usbank.com. Following are some of the important elements of our Corporate Governance practices.
Independent oversight.
Each of our Audit Committee, Compensation Committee and Governance Committee is composed entirely of independent outside directors. In fact, following our annual meeting, our Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer will be the only member of our Board of Directors who is not independent. In addition, our Board of Directors and the committees of the Board meet in “executive session” without management in attendance at every meeting. The presiding director at every executive session of the Board is an independent director. The Board and each committee also have express authority to engage outside advisors to provide additional independent expertise for their deliberations.
Board of Directors’ focus on U.S. Bancorp.
To ensure that our directors are able to focus effectively on our business, we limit the number of other public company boards a director may serve on to three. The Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Bancorp serves on only two other public company boards. Audit Committee member smay serve on no more than three other public company audit committees, and the chairman of the Audit Committee serves on no other audit committees.
Board of Directors’ knowledge and expertise.
All of our directors are skilled business leaders. Directors are encouraged to attend continuing director education seminars in order to keep a sharp focus on current good governance practices. In addition, the Board and each committee may use outside advisors to add expertise on specific issues. Our directors have full and unrestricted access to our management and employees. Additionally, key members of management attend Board meetings from time to time to present information about the results, plans and operations of their business segments. The Board and each committee perform annual self-evaluations in order to assess their performance and to ensure that the Board and committee structure is providing effectiveoversight of corporate management. You may review the charters of each of our Board committees on our Internet web site at usbank.com.
Management’s ownership commitment.
We understand clearly that U.S. Bancorp shareholders are the primary beneficiaries of management’s actions. All U.S. Bancorp executive officers and directors own shares of company stock, and in order to tightly align management’s interests with those of our shareholders, we have established stock ownership guidelines for our executive officers.
Disclosure controls.
We have established rigorous procedures to ensure that we provide complete and accurate disclosure in our publicly filed documents. We have also established a telephone hotline for employees to anonymously submit any concern they may have regarding corporate controls or ethical breaches. Management investigates all complaints and directs to our Audit Committee any issues relating to concerns about our financial statements or public disclosures.
U.S. Bancorp Code of Ethics and Business Conduct.
Each year, we reiterate the vital importance of our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct. The Code applies to directors, officers and all employees, who must certify annually their compliance with the standards of the Code. The content of the Code is based not solely on what we have the right to do, but, even more importantly, on what is the right thing to do. Our standards are higher than any legal minimum because our business is built on trust. You may review our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct on our Internet web site at usbank.com.
Communications with our Board of Directors.
Shareholders can communicate with our Board of Directors by sending a letter addressed to the Board of Directors, the independent outside directors or specified individual directors, to:
The Office of the Corporate Secretary
U.S. Bancorp
800 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, MN 55402 
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