FIRST BANK SET TO ACQUIRE U.S. BANCORP.

Byline: Associated Press 

First Bank System Inc. plans to buy U.S. Bancorp for $9 billion in a deal that will create the nation's 14th-largest bank with branches in 17 Midwestern and Western states.

The new company, to be called U.S. Bancorp, will be based in First Bank's home town of Minneapolis. U.S. Bancorp's home is Portland.

It will have assets of $70 billion and customers stretching from Minnesota to California, including almost 4 million households and 475,000 businesses.

The combined bank expects to eliminate 4,000 jobs as a result of the merger, which it said will allow it to cut operating costs by 14 percent.

Thursday's announcement comes as a new wave of mergers sweeps the banking industry. They are aimed at adding customers through acquisition while at the same time cutting costs.

In a messier merger between Western and Midwestern banks, Washington Mutual and H.F. Ahmanson are fighting each other for Great Western Financial Corp.

Gerry Cameron, U.S. Bancorp's chairman and chief executive officer, said the merger will be different from the Wells Fargo-First Interstate marriage, in which technical glitches left many unhappy customers.

``I think it will probably be one of the quietest mergers you could ever find,'' he predicted.

First Bank first approached U.S. Bancorp in November. Cameron was reluctant at first, but took First Bank's chairman and chief executive John Grundhofer's offer to his board of directors.

First Bank has been in the market for a West Coast bank before. Last year, it lost a high-stakes buyout battle for Los Angeles-based First Interstate to hostile bidder Wells Fargo & Co.

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Photo

Photo: Gerry Cameron

Expects `quiet' merger