Nov. 21--Where many Wisconsin banks see growth-stunting loan problems, U.S. Bank executives say they see opportunity.

While many other banks are taking losses and focusing on maintaining adequate capital during the tenacious recession, the relatively strong financial condition of U.S. Bank has put it in a position not only to keep good business customers but also to woo borrowers who have been in longtime banking relationships and off-limits, they said.

"There is nothing more important in times like this than to prove to your customers that you are loyal to them and will be with them through the cycle," Richard K. Davis, chairman, president and chief executive of U.S. Bancorp, said during a recent visit to Milwaukee. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp is the parent company of U.S. Bank.

Davis asserts that its strength among banks has made U.S. Bank attractive to business customers. The bank passed its stress test and paid back its $6.6 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program capital investment from the U.S. Treasury in only seven months. Although its nonperforming loans rose in the third quarter, U.S. Bank's ratio of noncurrent loans to total loans remains better than many of its competitors.

"Customers -- middle-market and corporate customers -- said, 'Look, I can't afford to have a line of credit that, at one year when I renew it, the bank doesn't want it anymore or can't afford to keep it anymore or won't give me the same terms,' " Davis said.

U.S. Bank was created in 2001 by the merger of U.S. Bancorp and Milwaukee's Firstar Corp., and it always has been an important business lender in Wisconsin. After the merger, local bankers say, competitors took advantage of the perception that U.S. Bank was a gigantic out-of-town financial institution to swoop in and take away some of its customers.

Now, however, U.S. Bank says it expects to win -- and has already started winning -- more business in the down economy because of its reputation as one of the healthiest big banks.

Maybe so, but pulling businesses away from existing banking relationships won't be easy, said veteran Wisconsin bank analyst David L. Donihue. While U.S. Bank is "a very strong, overall very well-managed bank," he said business borrowers in the state tend to be loyal to banks that have treated them well over the years.

"There's got to be a compelling reason for a company to leave," said Donihue, director of Maximizing Shareholder Value & Co. in Leesburg, Fla. "People overall in the Wisconsin market are still conservative, and they just don't rapidly leave people that they've been dealing with.