Bank One Corp. Units, U.S. Bancorp Report Gains Spurred by Cards, Fees

Banc One Corp. and First Chicago NBD Corp., reporting quarterly earnings separately for the last time, improved their bottom lines by 39% and 5%, respectively.

Like U.S. Bancorp of Minneapolis, which also reported results Thursday, the constituents of the new Bank One Corp. of Chicago benefited from healthy gains in credit card and investment management businesses.

Banc One earned $648 million and First Chicago NBD $405 million. They completed their merger earlier this month.

Joseph Duwan, an analyst with Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc., said they "presented some pretty good numbers. One of the more positive surprises was that credit costs fell."

U.S. Bancorp said it earned $329 million, reversing a $48 million net loss in the 1997 quarter. On an operating basis, earnings rose 14%. The company said loan growth was slightly lower than expected, and earnings per share of 50 cents, on an operating basis, were 1 cent short of analysts' expectations as compiled by First Call Corp.

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