US Bancorp Q1 profit up 28 pct

Minneapolis-based US Bancorp says its profits spiked 28 percent to $1.3 billion in the first quarter of the year.

As the economy improves, US Bank has been able to set aside less money for bad loans, which boosts profits. The bank's provision for those bad loans declined by 36 percent from the year before.

Jon Arfstrom with RBC Capital Markets said US Bank's profit increase also came from growth in new loans.

"This company has been a leader in attracting new relationships in new loan growth, so we've started to see that accelerate for them over the last couple of quarters," Arfstrom said. "This is just another consistent good loan growth quarter."

Arfstrom said US Bank got through the financial crisis in better shape than most other banks and is now attracting other lenders' customers.

Randall Kroszner, an economics professor at the University of Chicago and a former governor of the Federal Reserve System, said corporate and individual loan demand is still down from its previous peaks but both segments are showing improvements.