USB US Bancorp

By Cara Lombardo 

U.S. Bancorp said its second-quarter earnings rose to $1.5 billion, just beating Wall Street estimates as customers took out more loans and the bank benefited from recent interest-rate increases.

The company's average loans grew 3.4% to $275.5 billion from last year and 0.9% since the last quarter. U.S. Bank executives earlier this year had dampened expectations for loan growth, warning that commercial clients are slowing borrowing through traditional loans, a trend the entire banking industry faces.

But U.S. Bank Chief Executive Andy Cecere and other industry leaders expect bank-friendly regulatory reforms from Washington to boost their businesses.

"Our balance sheet is strong and our core businesses are well positioned for an economic and regulatory backdrop that has the promise to be more conducive to growth," he said.

Noninterest expenses rose 1% from a year ago. The bank said it had set aside money related to litigation accruals.

U.S. Bank's net income in the second quarter matched its net income a year ago. But on a per-share basis, earnings rose to 85 cents from 83 cents, just passing the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, which was 84 cents.

Revenue, a combination of fee-based income and net interest income, rose 3.1% to $5.5 billion. Credit and debit card revenue grew 7.8% year over year, while revenue from trust and investment management fees increased 6.1%.

Net interest income rose 6% to $3.02 billion but missed the $3.04 billion estimate analysts expected.

Shares in the Minneapolis-based company, the nation's fifth-largest bank and largest regional bank, were inactive premarket. Shares have risen less than one percentage point this year.

Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 19, 2017 08:06 ET (12:06 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.