‘160-year-old startup’ sets deep roots in Texas

U.S. Bank is expanding its presence to match the Lone Star state’s rapid economic rise

Today, U.S. Bank doesn’t have retail branch locations in Texas, but as the bank built out its wealth-management and institutional business in the state, Harman Johal took what some might see as a vulnerability and used it as an opportunity to showcase the bank’s value proposition – by making an old story new.

“We tell clients we are a 160-year-old startup in Texas because our history dates back to 1863 and we have the second-oldest banking charter in the U.S.,” said Johal, senior vice present and wealth region leader.

Johal joined U.S. Bank four years ago to create the company’s wealth management team in the state, working out of a coffee shop while he hired his first employees. Fast forward to this year, when the bank celebrated the opening of client centers in Dallas and Houston.

While the bank has been in Texas since 2005, it has significantly expanded its presence in recent years – growing from 1,300 employees in 2021 to more than 2,500 today, in areas ranging from small business and large-cap banking to commercial real estate. In that same period, the number of midsize and large corporate clients has more than doubled. 

"Texas plays an important role in our growth strategy," said Hassan Salem, who oversees all regional markets for the U.S. Bank Institutional Client Group. "We maintain strong relationships with companies of all sizes and families throughout the state. Our team of seasoned Texas bankers leverages the comprehensive capabilities of U.S. Bank for our clients' needs, including credit, capital markets, payments, foreign exchange and interest-rate risk management."

U.S. Bank’s interconnectedness across its lines of business has been baked into its approach to Texas from the start, Johal said. As one example, every wealth advisor job candidate has to talk to the mid-cap banking team before Johal extends a job offer, and vice versa.

“We are hiring talent based on how well they can perform in a team and support a team,” he said.

The expansion of the bank’s presence comes as Texas’s economic growth has outpaced most of the rest of the country in recent years and is forecast to continue that trend.

Because of the bank’s depth and scope of capabilities, “it’s unlikely that our clients will outgrow us, which is very important in a market like Texas,” said Susan Jenull, Texas market leader, U.S. Bank Institutional Client Group. “A lot of companies in the state are growing so much that their needs have become more complicated and sophisticated, and U.S. Bank will almost always have the capabilities and solutions they need.”

Client centers in Dallas and Houston

U.S. Bank has branch locations in 26 states, but digital advancements, alliances with Edward Jones and State Farm, and approaches like the bank has taken in Texas have accelerated the company’s ability to provide products and services to a significantly larger segment in the U.S. 

The client centers that opened earlier this year in Houston and Dallas feature bankers from multiple business lines, including consumer and business banking, large-cap banking, and wealth management. The centers offer a welcoming space for consumers and businesses to consult with bankers on everything from financing equipment to securing a Small Business Administration loan. Another focus for U.S. Bank has been on adding healthcare business bankers who can help doctors, dentists and veterinarians finance their practices.

The Texas expansion is part of the bank’s strategy to enter markets incrementally to ensure resources are aligned to client needs, rather than the old model of starting with a large, splashy real estate footprint to announce a market entry.

“In markets where we might not have a branch footprint but have deep client relationships and can offer even more value from different areas of the bank, we’re opening client centers like those in Houston and Dallas,” Salem said. “In addition to increased satisfaction from businesses and consumers, we’re seeing growth from this strategy — and Texas is a key part of that.”