Expanding Capabilities and Distribution
U.S. Bancorp is continuously expanding its scope of quality services, its depth of market presence and its capacity to serve our customers wherever they may work, live or conduct business.
At U.S. Bancorp, expansion means far more than just geographic extension — although we continue to grow our businesses across the country and around the world. More important than a larger franchise footprint is our success in expanding our product and service benefits, expanding our expertise, and expanding the accessibility, speed and security of our distribution and delivery systems.
In-market Expansion Continues
Large banking acquisitions are not among our priorities; however, we continue to look at smaller fill-in opportunities to expand distribution in existing markets. We have been very successful at this type of expansion. In February 2007, we completed the acquisition of United Financial Corp., the parent company of Heritage Bank in Montana. The transaction strengthened U.S. Bank’s franchise both by enhancing its existing market presence in certain regions of Montana and expanding into new regions of the state.
Line of Business Expansion
In 2007 We expanded our payment capabilities and our commercial payments services in Canada by acquiring a large Canadian bank’s Visa® purchasing and corporate card portfolio. With our existing U.S. Bank Canada capabilities, that expansion gave us unparalleled capacity to serve organizations or government entities of any size in the country.
We continue to grow our wholesale banking platform on a national scale to serve the sophisticated needs of large corporate and institutional clients. In November, we opened a national corporate and institutional banking office in midtown New York City which also includes the bank’s Wealth Management division. That office bolsters U.S. Bank’s presence on the East Coast where we have been serving our clients’ corporate trust and escrow needs from our 100 Wall Street location for 14 years.
Last year, U.S. Bank purchased AIMS Logistics, a leading services provider to the logistics industry. Our customers will have the advantage of enhanced global invoice processing capabilities and the purchase is expected to add billions of dollars in invoicing processing volume to the PowerTrack Payment Network, solidifying U.S. Bank PowerTrack as the leading commercial payment provider.
We continue to expand our payments capabilities in this country and across western Europe. Closer to home, we continue to increase our presence in growing markets through traditional and in-store and on-site offices.
In-store and on-site branches expand distribution
We successfully open 40 to 50 in-store and corporate on-site branches annually and now operate more than 500 of these full-service offices. Customer response to the convenience is extraordinary, and we are expanding economically via this capital-efficient distribution system. Our dedicated management team focuses exclusively on these branches and their unique characteristics. Non-traditional branch locations include supermarkets, retailers, universities, corporate facilities, airports, hospitals, retirement centers and other high-traffic venues, including Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, and Malmstrom Air Force Base outside Great Falls, Montana.
A world-leader in payments continues to grow
U.S. Bancorp subsidiary NOVA Information Systems and its European affiliate Elavon Merchant Services are global providers of payment processing. We leverage that global strength, industry-leading technology and expertise, and our expanding reach now processes transactions on behalf of merchants based in more than 30 countries, supporting more than 1,000,000 merchant locations. NOVA is the third largest U.S. credit card processor, Elavon is a top 4 acquirer in Europe, and together, we are a top 10 processor worldwide. Ever-expanding services include credit and debit card processing, electronic check services, gift cards, dynamic currency conversion, multi-currency support, and crossborder acquiring.
Mobile Banking provides anywhere-anytime access
U.S. Bank is developing new access for customers using their mobile phones. Cell phone text alerts keep customers current on account activities and now account for 700,000 messages per day. U.S. Bank, MasterCard Worldwide and Nokia partnered to introduce a mobile pilot program in Spokane, Washington to allow customers to make purchases by “tapping” their specially equipped mobile phone at the point of sale at stores, vending machines, cinemas, and restaurants. Soon, customers will be able to view account history and balances over the mobile web, transfer funds between accounts, pay bills and more.
