U.S. Bank retools a leaner Minnesota branch network to be more useful in a digital age

Though many customers are taking their business online, U.S. Bank officials say the brick-and-mortar branch is still important to clients.

Over the past year, the largest bank based in Minnesota has invested about $40 million in that concept through updates to its statewide network. U.S. Bank recently put finishing touches on 52 of its 78 Twin Cities locations, as part of a larger strategy to brush up dated spaces and make them more useful, while shuttering 10 locations statewide in recent years.

U.S. Bank is designing spaces with fewer teller lines, smarter on-site technology and more meeting rooms for private conversations with bankers.

The move aligns with a larger trend across the industry as banks adapt to the shifting preferences of customers who would rather use a mobile application to do things like transfer money between accounts and make deposits.

As customers take their banking online, U.S. Bank has introduced technology that allows customers to have video meetings with bankers or let bank employees remotely control their phone screens.

But Sekou Kaalund, U.S. Bancorp’s head of branch and small business banking, said physical locations remain “core to our business.”

“The death of the branch has been overstated since I’ve been in the industry,” Kaalund said in an interview. “What we’ve actually seen is that money is personal. There’s a psychology around money, and typically you want the comfort as a customer that that branch is there when you do need to go in.”

In the Silver Lake branch in St. Anthony, cubicles were removed from the main floor to make way for a more open-floor concept. With the monthslong renovation came a large boardroom that is open to the public and sometimes used for nonprofit meetings.

There are other draws, like the new cafe. Branch banking district manager Angie Roles says the vanilla latte-dispensing coffee machine and the mini-fridge stuffed with soft drinks are popular.

U.S. Bank rolled out the changes in Minnesota along with four other key markets: Nashville, Denver, Portland and California, where U.S. Bank acquired Union Bank in 2022. About 300 branches across more than 2,000 in U.S. Bank’s 26-state network are seeing some type of update this year.

In the past year, most locations around the Twin Cities were touched up in some way. Some locations required more work than others, and a few projects are ongoing, like the branch in downtown Minneapolis’ IDS Center.

As the refresh has fanned out across the Twin Cities, people are noticing the lighter and brighter interiors, said Anna Dosen, U.S. Bank’s branch banking market leader for Minnesota and North Dakota.

The changes come as U.S. Bank has significantly cut Minnesota branches in recent years. Between 2022 and 2024, the bank closed five in the Twin Cities, one in Rochester, one in Moorhead and three across greater Minnesota. One opened in that time, at 3600 E. Lake St. in Minneapolis.

Kaalund said U.S. Bank has determined where branches make sense based largely on where the client needs were. Now, he said, the company is reinvesting in its existing spaces, and “we feel good about where the network is” in terms of size.