US Bancorp 4Q earning fall but nearly as much as Citi Group. Here are the details. US Bancorp 4Q Profit Slides 14 Percent

US Bancorp Fourth-Quarter Earnings Drop 14 Percent, but Credit Woes Are Muted

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- U.S. Bancorp (USB) said Tuesday fourth-quarter earnings fell 14 percent, but the Minneapolis-based bank largely avoided the subprime woes that have hurt other major U.S. financial institutions.

Net income slid to $942 million, or 53 cents per share, from $1.19 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

The latest quarter included charges of $215 million related to an industrywide settlement involving the Visa Inc. credit-card association and $107 million to write down the value of securities in money market funds managed by an affiliate. Together, the items took 13 cents per-share off the bottom line, U.S. Bancorp said.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 59 cents per share.

An increase in earning assets helped net interest income gain 4 percent. Growth of 12 percent in fee income overcame the write-down, pushing non-interest income 3 percent higher. Expenses rose, hurt by higher credit costs.

Analysts expect the country's major banks to write down more than $60 billion in the fourth quarter to cover assets that have shriveled as the housing and mortgage markets crashed.

U.S. Bancorp Chief Executive Richard Davis said in a statement his company will not be immune to the current crisis, but added "increases in net charge-offs and nonperforming assets in the coming year will be manageable."

The provision for credit losses was $225 million in the fourth quarter, up $26 million from the third quarter and $56 million from a year earlier.

"The increase in the provision for credit losses from a year ago reflected growth in credit card accounts, increasing retail loan delinquencies and higher commercial losses," the bank said.

Profit for the full year was $4.32 billion, or $2.43 a share, a 9 percent drop from the 2006 total of $4.75 billion, or $2.61 a share.

The Div Guy owns shares of USB at the time of this post.