U.S. Bank's website and mobile app went down for a few hours Friday morning.

The trouble happened after the company's engineers attempted a software change overnight.

Users began to notice the outage around 8 a.m. Central time. It had restored service on both the website and mobile app by about 10:20 a.m., a spokesman said.

Like many companies, U.S. Bank occasionally takes its digital services offline for software updates during hours when they are lightly used. Friday's difficulties extended into normal working hours, prompting customers to take note.

"This morning we experienced an outage of our website and mobile banking app as a result of an overnight software change that we implemented," the company said in a statement. "We have restored service to our website and mobile banking app — both are now fully operational. We apologize for the inconvenience to our customers and thank them for their patience."

The company's shares, which jumped on Wednesday after strong third-quarter results, rose about a half percent on a day when broader market indexes fell.

Online banking accelerated

U.S. Bank this spring rolled out a new version of the app its customers use on smartphones and tablets.

In the creation of that app, the Minneapolis-based company made a major change in its approach to technology development, adopting a continuous process akin to what's seen at major software firms.

The bank, the nation's fifth-largest, reported about a year ago that more than half of its consumer customers were frequent users of its digital services. Over the past year, usage of both its website and mobile app has accelerated with both consumer and business customers, executives have said.

Evan Ramstad • 612-673-4241