Dive Brief:

• U.S. Bank has named Heather Kesner to a newly created role as head of small-business banking, the Minneapolis-based lender said Wednesday.
• Kesner, who has been at the bank for six years, most recently served as east region small-business and branch banking executive. Prior to joining U.S. Bank, she held leadership positions at JPMorgan Chase and Santander. 
• In the role, Kesner will oversee U.S. Bank’s team of 650 small-banking specialists who operate within the lender’s 26-state branch footprint, as well as national sales staffers who work with clients remotely. Establishing the position “brings increased focus in how we serve this segment of businesses,” said Kesner, who started in the job Sept. 1.

Dive Insight:

The $686 billion-asset super-regional created the new role to provide “focused support” for companies generating between $500,000 and $2.5 million in annual sales. 

“When we look at the opportunity there is to grow, these are the businesses that pop up every day,” Kesner said in a recent interview. “This is the hobby that someone's been doing in their basement or their spare bedroom for years, and all of a sudden they're like, gosh, I could really turn this into a business.”

The move was also partly a competitive response: Just like U.S. Bank, its peers are eager to serve more small businesses and expand relationships with them, Kesner said.

“[Competition is] one of the reasons why we made the decision to invest in adding this role,” she said. Rival banks are “going after the same things that we are.” 

Kesner is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and will continue reporting to Sekou Kaalund, head of branch and small-business banking.

Businesses in the $500,000 to $2.5 million in annual sales segment “face increasingly complex banking and payments challenges, and it’s essential that we meet them with both expert guidance from our bankers and innovative digital solutions that evolve with their needs,” Kaalund said in the release.

These entrepreneurs might be a sole proprietor, or run a 10-person business, looking for access to capital, payroll services and money movement capabilities such as paying bills, Kesner said.

She plans to work closely with Shruti Patel, U.S. Bank’s chief product officer for business banking; Dee O’Dell, who leads the lender’s business banking segment serving companies with between $2.5 million and $50 million in annual sales; and branch leaders, who work with micro businesses.

In total, the bank has about 1.5 million small-business customers across that range of sizes. Consumer and business banking accounts for about 32% of U.S. Bank’s overall revenue, as of the first quarter.

The super-regional has added about 25 small-business specialists this year and plans to add another 25 next year, Kesner said. The bank is also having those specialists go through additional training and prospecting, to bolster their skills in acquiring new customers and enhance their knowledge of the products and services the bank offers, so they can better spot opportunities with current customers. 

Making sure small-business specialists have up-to-date economic information and forecasting is key, too, Kesner said.

Alongside the personalized service component, enhancing digital capabilities has been a top area of focus. U.S. Bank has added new products this year for business customers, such as a spend management platform, an embedded payroll tool and a business checking account that features payments acceptance capabilities. 

The bank has plans for additional enhancements in 2026. “As we continue to get feedback from our customers through some of the new things that we’ve added, it allows us to really take a look at what’s next,” Kesner said.

The lender sees further opportunity to cross-sell services, if there are banking clients who aren’t also tapping U.S. Bank for payments capabilities, for example.