NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Oct. 16, 2013--U.S. Bancorp (USB; A+/Stable/A-1) continued to post above-peer results in terms of return on average assets (1.65%) and loan growth (mid-single digit), which Standard&Poor's Ratings Services views as good and in line with our expectations. Nevertheless, revenue declined 5.6%, largely because of a decline in mortgage-banking revenue. Positively, credit quality continued to improve, as net charge-offs are at historically low levels. Based on these results, our ratings on USB remain unchanged. We anticipate pretax earnings to be modestly higher in 2013 compared with last year. We base this on our expectations for low- to mid-single-digit loan growth, a decline of the net interest margin (NIM) from last year's level, and a
