U.S. Bancorp to add about 60 bankers to court mid‑market clients

The hiring push and who it targets

U.S. Bancorp plans to expand its roster of relationship managers focused on middle-market companies, adding about 60 bankers. The target clients are businesses with annual revenue between $50 million and $1 billion, and the new roles will be stationed across Texas, California and Florida, among other states.

Hassan Salem, who leads middle-market banking, oversees roughly 230 bankers today and reports to Felicia La Forgia. The buildout advances a sales organization that was set up in 2024 under Gunjan Kedia, who was then president and is now chief executive officer.

How the unit is structured and why now

The 2024 sales organization was designed to center on client-facing work and pull together the bank's offerings across deposits, lending, payments and investment banking. As Salem put it, "Lending is only part of the opportunity, but the value is much deeper than that, as we bring the full bank to those clients."

The focus on this segment lines up with U.S. Bancorp's acquisition of BTIG LLC earlier this year. Salem said the deal expanded ways to advise companies on transactions and to help them raise funds. "They're predominantly a mid-market investment bank, which lines really well with the type of clients that we have within the mid-market business here," he said.

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The competitive backdrop and the scorecard

Rivals have been leaning into this space as Wall Street heavyweights such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. move downstream. Kedia, who became CEO in April 2025, has emphasized controlling costs, improving operations and shoring up investor confidence in a stock that lingered near the bottom of the KBW Bank Index for years.

So far this year the shares are up more than 13 percent and have outperformed the index. The bank has also outlined plans to invest in branches and to enter new states. For all of 2026, management expects total net revenue to increase by 8 to 9 percent.

Why it matters for your portfolio

In plain English: U.S. Bancorp is betting that a bigger on-the-ground sales force, backed by an in-house investment bank and a tighter operating plan, can deepen relationships with mid-sized companies and lift revenue. The segment is crowded, but the bank's recent stock momentum and 2026 growth target put a marker down for execution investors can track through hiring progress, fee income and deal activity.

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