Tristate consumers will literally see red, white and blue at about every other bank they stroll by today.

        That's when branches of Firstar — one of Greater Cincinnati's largest banks — will fly the new patriotic-looking emblem of U.S. Bank, changing its name for the second time in three years.

Workers take down the Firstar Bank sign on a downtown building so they can replace it with one touting the firm's new name: U.S. Bank. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        The new look also means that U.S Bank will join Fifth Third and Provident, Cincinnati's two largest hometown banks, with some variation of the all-American colors in their insignias.

        Those three banks control more than 50 percent of the region's total deposits and are the three largest lenders to Tristate businesses.

        The face lift also will erase the identity of one of Cincinnati's most prominent companies and start a new era of Tristate banking.

        The new U.S. Bank traces its roots to Star Banc Corp.'s $8 billion purchase of Firstar in 1999. Firstar paid $23 billion to buy out U.S. Bancorp in February 2001.

        About 700 Firstar signs — on everything from a downtown skyscraper to ATMs to billboards and sports and entertainment complexes — will sport the new look.

        Firstar will change its 107 local branches by today. It will is changing Firstar Tower to U.S. Bank Tower, Firstar Center to U.S. Bank Arena and Firstar IMAX in Newport to U.S. Bank IMAX Theater.

        U.S. Bank, which is spending $3.5 million locally to make the change, has mailed notices to 400,000 to 500,000 customers or potential customers informing them of the transformation.

        U.S. Bank executives also are confident that they won't lose any customers in the process and optimistic about what they say will be the bank's final name change. They also said customers will continue to do such things as write checks and make ATM and credit card transactions with Firstar products for now.

        “Customers will have nothing to worry about as we're going to make this as seamless as possible for them,” said Steve Dale, U.S. Bank spokesman.

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