U.S. Bank’s technology leaders are looking to emerging technologies at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show for financial services applications as the bank doubles down on its tech investment in 2025. 

While AI was a recurring theme at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, which the $678.3 billion U.S. Bank has attended each year for the past decade. This year, agentic AI was a notable presence at the show, Chief Innovation Officer Don Relyea told Bank Automation News. 

“A lot of things you see at CES are solutions looking for a problem and a customer,” Relyea said. “What we’re looking for, and we were excited to see more of this year, are companies that have a more robust, customer-centered design process.” 

U.S. Bank looks to the electronics show to inform its R&D investment when expanding its technology integrations, Relyea said, adding that the bank’s innovation strategy includes: 

• Customer focus groups; 

• De-risking frameworks; and 

• Testing sandboxes. 

While U.S. Bank is not ready to disclose what innovations will come out of this year’s CES findings, past innovations from the show include the bank’s voice assistant, Smart Assistant, which launched in 2020. 

Q4 tech wins

It is worthwhile investing in technology because it can simplify operations, help manage expenses and strengthen client relations, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer John Stern said today during U.S. Bank’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call. 

In fact, tech-led initiatives represent about one-third of U.S. Bank’s merchant business, Stern said during the call. 

U.S. Bank is committed to being capital efficient, but technology will continue to be an investment priority, Chief Executive Andrew Cecere said during the call, without disclosing 2025 tech spend estimates. 

Automating processes and expanding digital capabilities are focuses for the bank’s tech investment, Stern said. 

U.S. Bank reported $4.3 billion in noninterest expenses during the fourth quarter, a 2.5% increase from Q3 but a 17.4% reduction from Q4 2023, according to its earnings supplement.  

The bank expects noninterest expenses this quarter to be flat, Stern said. 

Technology and communications expenses in Q4 were $534 million, up 1.9% quarter over quarter and up 4.1% year over year. 

BY THE NUMBERS: In Q4, U.S. Bank reported: 

• $7 billion in Q4 net revenue, up 2.1% QoQ and up 3.7% YoY; and 

• 61.5% efficiency ratio compared with 60.2% in Q3 and 75.9% in Q4 2023. 

NOTEWORTHY: U.S. Bank named former American Express veteran Courtney Kelso as its senior vice president and head of its Payments: Consumer and Small Business division, the company announced on Jan. 15. 

MARKET REACTION: Shares of U.S. Bank (NYSE: USB) were down 5% from market open to $48.03 as of market close today. U.S. Bank has a market capitalization of $74.9 billion. 

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