U.S. Bancorp names Gunjan Kedia new president

Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp announced a major change to its senior leadership team Friday, promoting Gunjan Kedia to president of the parent company of U.S. Bank.

Kedia, whose previous title was vice chair of wealth, corporate, commercial and institutional banking, will report to Andy Cecere, who retains the title of chairman and CEO.

“U.S. Bank is a very special place, has very unique culture, especially in banking, and to be part of that story and to get a chance to play a broader role is very exciting. I feel very fortunate,” Kedia told the Star Tribune in a Friday interview.

Kedia, 53, will oversee the company’s three lines of business: consumer and business banking; payment services; and wealth, corporate, commercial and institutional banking. She has worked for the company for seven years and has spent nearly 30 years in financial services, including leadership roles at PwC and McKinsey & Co., BNY Mellon and State Street Financial.

“During her more than seven years with U.S. Bank, Gunjan has shown herself to be a visionary leader who understands our business and is driven to help us perform at our best. She has an unwavering commitment to serving our clients, building strong teams and living our values,” Cecere said in a statement.

Kedia becomes president as the bank industry remains under pressure for slowing loan and deposit growth, which has impacted the company’s net interest income. Last month, U.S. Bancorp revised its fiscal 2024 net interest income downward from $16.6 billion to between $16.1 billion and $16.4 billion.

“The banking industry is at a point of real inflection. A lot has happened in the industry since the events of the last year,” Kedia said, referring to the meltdown of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. “We are the largest bank that is not a globally systemically important bank, so we really are big enough to matter, but small enough to be really caring and trustworthy. We think our opportunity is vast in front of us.”

That opportunity includes advancing digital banking products.

“There is an expectation our clients have,” Kedia said. “We should know what they need and be there to present that opportunity to them in the right way, at the right time. We also think it’s very powerful to attack things like personalization, even fraud prevention or identity protection. It’s both offensive abilities and it’s also the defense and protecting our client base.”

The bank is also seeing growth following its largest deal in years, the $8 billion acquisition of MUFG Union Bank that was completed in December 2022. The company spent much of 2023 integrating MUFG, a move that propelled U.S. Bancorp’s presence in California from No. 10 to No. 5 in market share, Kedia said.

For the full year of 2023, U.S. Bancorp brought in a record $28.1 billion in revenue, primarily due to the addition of Union Bank. The bank reported $5.4 billion in profits last year, down from $5.8 billion in 2022.