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JUSTICE DEPARTMENT REQUIRES FIRSTAR CORPORATION AND U.S. BANCORP

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice today announced that Firstar Corporation and U.S. Bancorp Inc. have agreed to sell a total of 13 branch offices with approximately $756 million in deposits in Minnesota and Iowa in order to resolve antitrust concerns about the companies' pending merger. The merger will create the eighth-largest bank in the United States.

Under the agreement, Firstar will divest 11 branches in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and approximately $180 million in middle-market loans, and a number of commercial loan officers will be made available for hire to the buyer. In addition, Firstar will divest two branches in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Firstar has also agreed that, for a period of time, it will sell any branches closed in those two markets as a result of the merger to any commercial bank as long as the bank's offer is equivalent to, or better than, any offer from a non-bank bidder.

The proposed merger is subject to the final approval of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The Department said that it will advise the Federal Reserve Board that, subject to divestiture of the branch offices and associated loans and deposits, the Antitrust Division will not challenge the merger.

Firstar Corporation is headquartered in Milwaukee and is a regional multi-state bank holding company. It has $74.4 billion in total assets and $52.7 billion in total deposits and operates bank branches in Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kansas, and Arizona.

U.S. Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Minneapolis. It has $86.2 billion in total assets and $52.5 billion in total deposits and has bank branches located in California, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

A list of the branches to be divested is attached.

Firstar Branch Divestiture List

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