U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems Wins Department of Homeland Security Contract; New Federal Agency Selects U.S. Bank to Provide Purchasing Card Services

Business Wire, July 14, 2003

Business Editors

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 2003

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB)

The Corporate Payment Systems division of U.S. Bank has been awarded the General Services Administration (GSA) SmartPay Task Order to provide purchasing card services to the newly-created Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS, consisting of some 22 agencies with an estimated annual charge volume in the hundreds of millions of dollars, will be on par with some of U.S. Bank's larger government and commercial clients.

"This is a huge win for U.S. Bank for a variety of reasons," said Rob Abele, executive vice president for Corporate Payment Systems. "DHS is clearly a high-visibility agency and the incremental sales volume is a very attractive addition to our government portfolio, but just as importantly, this task order award represents a significant takeaway from other service providers in the federal government space.

"This is the first major task order award since the GSA SmartPay program was started in 1998. We have made a considerable investment in the federal government market to ensure that we are able to meet the unique needs of federal agencies; this task order award demonstrates that we are making the right investment."

U.S. Bank has a long history of providing commercial card services to government agencies and is currently the largest purchasing card provider to the federal government. DHS compliments U.S. Bank's existing government customers, including: the Department of Defense (Army, Air Force and other DoD Agencies), the United States Postal Service, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Executive Office of the President. The contract is for one year (November 30, 2003 through November 29, 2004) and includes four one-year options to renew contingent upon GSA exercising the four Master Contract option periods.

In 1998, GSA awarded contracts to provide federal agencies with commercial card services, including travel, purchasing and fleet cards. The GSA SmartPay contracts were effective from November 30, 1998 through November 29, 2003, with five one-year options to renew, through November 2008. In addition to U.S. Bank, the initial GSA SmartPay contract awards were made to four other service providers.

SmartPay was instituted to help government agencies minimize the issuance of purchase orders and the receipt of invoices, reduce administrative costs, improve cash management by eliminating the need for advance funds, third party drafts and cash on hand and consolidate purchases from many suppliers to a single invoice. The General Accounting Office (GAO) estimates that purchasing card programs saved government agencies more than $1 billion dollars last year.

"With just five months' time until cards are issued, there's no question that we have our work cut out for us, but we've already begun our implementation process and we enjoy the unique challenges a program such as DHS presents. We have a lot of experience implementing programs of this size, and we look forward to working with DHS to ensure that they receive all the benefits a program like this has to offer," commented Abele.

U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems offers clients a full suite of solutions for commercial, fleet and B2B payment needs. U.S. Bank was the first to offer corporate bankcard, purchasing and relocation card programs, the first to offer a private-label fleet card and is one of the largest merchant acquirers in the world. Corporate Payment Systems maintains an enviable list of clients including nearly half of the Fortune 100 and more than thirty percent of the Fortune 500.

U.S. Bank is part of U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB). With assets in excess of $182 billion, U.S. Bancorp is the 8th largest financial services holding company in the United States. The company operates 2,201 banking offices and 4,582 ATMs, and provides a comprehensive line of banking, brokerage, insurance, investment, mortgage, trust and payment services products to consumers, businesses and institutions. U.S. Bancorp is home of the Five Star Service Guarantee, which assures customers of certain key banking benefits and services or customers will be paid for their inconvenience. Visit U.S. Bancorp on the web at www.usbank.com.