Dive Brief:

• U.S. Bank is adding teams of business bankers in Florida and Georgia, as part of its effort to cultivate a national business banking presence, the Minneapolis-based lender said Monday. 
• The bank is also adding to its business banking presence in Dallas and Phoenix, bringing its overall business banker roster to about 1,300, said Dee O’Dell, U.S. Bank’s head of business banking sales.
• The super-regional is eyeing similar business banking team additions elsewhere, although O’Dell declined to specify where. “We think there will be some other fast follows, other places we will put business banking teams where we already have wealth management teams, middle market bankers,” O’Dell said in an interview. “There are a couple of other places that are high on our list.” 

Dive Insight:

Beyond U.S. Bank’s 26-state branch footprint, the $725.9 billion-asset bank also operates client centers, where it has multiple lines of business working to serve customers. O’Dell pointed to Florida, where the bank has no branches but 1,400 employees already working in middle-market banking, wealth management and mortgage. 

U.S. Bank employees in those areas may encounter potential business banking clients and alert O’Dell to the opportunity in that market.  

“The wealth management team has already been doing this in several places,” O’Dell said. “It’s my partner in wealth management, Beth Lawlor, who is the initial call to me to say, ‘Dee, I have wealth bankers, they’re finding business opportunities. Would you hire business bankers in Houston? Can we collaborate there?’”

U.S. Bank CEO Gunjan Kedia encourages that type of collaboration across bank units to drive growth, he said. 

“It’s not just your success in your own business line, but demonstrate how you’re working with other business lines to drive that connectivity,” O’Dell said.

Groups across business lines “can work closely together to form an even better network to go into the marketplace and refer business,” he said.

U.S. Bank’s business banking segment serves about 75,000 companies generating between $2.5 million to $50 million in annual revenue, O’Dell said. 

The lender has been focused on becoming a client’s primary operating bank and serving larger, more complex clients, O’Dell said. U.S. Bank counts a small number of those customers today, although he declined to share a number.

“Competition is pretty fierce,” for both clients and talent, “everywhere we are,” O’Dell said. 

U.S. Bank’s collaborative approach and the tools bankers are armed with – such as those identifying the right companies to approach in a certain market – are attracting bankers from some of the largest lenders, he said.

O’Dell declined to say how many bankers U.S. Bank expects to bring on over the next year. About 50 customer-facing roles have been added this year. Last year, business banker teams were added in Las Vegas; Houston; Chicago; and Charlotte, North Carolina. 

With this current push, U.S. Bank plans to hire about 10 bankers in Florida and 10 in Georgia. About 10 bankers have been added in Dallas, and about 10 are being hired in Phoenix.