By Gina Heeb

U.S. Bancorp said Chief Executive Andy Cecere will leave the role this spring, to be succeeded by bank president Gunjan Kedia.

Kedia, 54, is set to take the helm of the nation's largest regional bank in mid-April, becoming its first woman CEO. She became president in 2024 and was seen as a likely successor. She had previously been vice chair of wealth, corporate, commercial and institutional banking.

Cecere, 64, will become executive chairman.

The move comes at a pivotal time for regional banks, which tend to have plain-vanilla businesses taking in deposits and making loans and don't enjoy the same scale and diversity of megabanks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.

"We are at an important inflection point," Kedia said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "There is meaningful change in the banking industry."

The bank will still be focused on organic growth, Kedia said. But she added that deals would "at some point be a very important part of our strategy." She had said last year the bank would like to buy a Southeastern bank, a comment executives later walked back.

Kedia said she would look to accelerate growth at the bank, particularly the payments business. She will also seek to boost productivity to streamline the bank, such as through the use of artificial intelligence and other technology.

U.S. Bancorp, based in Minnesota, has some $678 billion in assets.

U.S. Bancorp has lagged behind its peers. The stock is up around 15% over the past 12 months, compared with a roughly 43% rise in the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index.

"It's a name that investors have been frustrated with for the past few years," said Jason Goldberg, a bank analyst at Barclays, in an interview earlier this month. "Growth has been lagging."

U.S. Bancorp last year completed its integration of MUFG Union Bank, which it bought in an $8 billion deal to expand its presence on the West Coast.

Write to Gina Heeb at gina.heeb@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 28, 2025 13:32 ET (18:32 GMT)

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