Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Finance and Insurance |
Founded | Omaha, Nebraska December 10, 1857 (as Kountze Brothers Bank); July 1, 1865 (First National Bank Omaha) |
Headquarters | First National Bank Tower Omaha, Nebraska, United States |
Key people | Clark Lauritzen (president) |
Products | Financial services |
Total assets | $30.78 billion (2024) [1] |
Parent | First National of Nebraska |
Website | www |
First National Bank Omaha d/b/a FNBO is a bank headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. It is a subsidiary of First National of Nebraska, Inc., a bank holding company primarily owned by the Lauritzen family. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States and is the oldest national bank headquartered west of the Missouri River.
The bank provides corporate banking, investment banking, retail banking, wealth management and consumer lending services and operates 120 branches in 8 states in the Midwestern United States. It also operates FNBO Direct, a direct bank. The bank is one of the largest issuers of credit cards, issuing cards under affinity programs with Amtrak, Major League Lacrosse, World of Warcraft, and Scheels All Sports.
Two immigrant brothers from Ohio, Herman Kountze and Augustus Kountze, founded the bank as Kountze Brothers Bank in 1857. It traded primarily in gold dust and bison hides. The bank received national charter #209 [2] in 1863 and began doing business as First National Bank of Omaha. It brought in additional investors, including Edward Creighton, who served as president.
In 1953, under the leadership of John Lauritzen, First National Bank became the first bank in the region and the fifth in the nation to issue credit cards. [3]
In 1968, due to an investment in real estate not permitted under a straight banking charter, the bank reorganized as a subsidiary of the bank holding company, First National of Nebraska, Inc.
In 1971, employees started moving into the 22-story First National Center. Attached to a 420-room hotel and a 550-stall parking garage, it became one of the most modern buildings in the region, providing economic development in downtown Omaha. [4]
In 1987, Bruce Lauritzen was named president of the bank. [5]
In 2000, First National Bank designated two parcels of green space for the city of Omaha. They are the current sites of two sculpture parks called "Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness" and "Pioneer Courage". Working in tandem, the two sculptures join to make one of the largest bronze sculptures in the world. [6]
In 2002, First National Bank completed construction on the First National Bank Tower, the tallest building between Chicago and Denver.
From 2006 to 2009, Rajive Johri was president of the bank. [7]
From 2009 to 2017, Dan O'Neil was president of the bank. [8]
On September 30, 2010, the bank holding company, First National of Nebraska, consolidated its bank charters of First National Bank of Colorado, in Fort Collins, Colorado; First National Bank of Kansas, in Overland Park, Kansas; and Castle Bank, in DeKalb, Illinois, with its First National Bank of Omaha charter. [9]
In 2010, the bank sold a 51% interest in its merchant acquiring business to TSYS for $150.5 million. [10] TSYS acquired the remaining 49% of the business the following year. [11]
In 2014, the bank holding company consolidated the charter of First National Bank South Dakota with the charter of First National Bank of Omaha. [12]
In 2017, Clark Lauritzen was named president of the bank. [13]
In 2018, the bank ended its credit card affinity program with the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) due to customer complaints after the Parkland high school shooting. [14]
In 2020, the bank changed its branding to FNBO from First National Bank of Omaha. [15]
# | Year | Company | Ref(s). |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1984 | David City Bank | [16] |
2 | 1988 | First Security Bank & Trust Co. | [16] |
3 | 1989 | First of Omaha Savings Co. | [16] |
4 | 2000 | First State Bank | [16] |
5 | 2008 | Mills County Bank | [16] [17] |
6 | 2010 | Infibank | [16] |
7 | 2022 | Western State Bank | [16] [18] [19] |
8 | 2022 | SAF Holdings, LLC and its wholly owned subsidiary AmeriFirst Home Improvement Finance, LLC | [16] [20] |
Notable office locations of FNBO include:
In August 2016, First National Bank of Omaha was disciplined for numerous deceptive marketing and unfair billing practices regarding credit card add-on products such as credit monitoring, identity theft monitoring, and debt relief products and services that they did not receive. The bank was ordered to provide $27.75 million in relief to roughly 257,000 consumers and a $4.5 million civil money penalty to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as well as a $3 million civil money penalty to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. [21] [22] [23] [24]
In February 1969, Fred Fisher, a resident of Iowa, received an unsolicited BankAmericard from First National Bank Omaha charging an 18% interest rate, despite a legal maximum rate of 9% in Iowa. Fisher filed a suit against FNBO in 1971, which he won, albeit the case was appealed. At the same time, Marquette Bank Minneapolis sued FNBO for charging customers in Minnesota interest rates that were higher than the 12% legal limit in that state. The case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which maintained that the National Bank Act takes precedence over usury statues in individual states and permitted a national bank to charge interest at the rate allowed by the regulations of the state in which such bank is located. In the aftermath of the decision, states loosened their anti-usury laws, allowing state-chartered banks to compete more equally with national banks. Some states, such as South Dakota eliminated anti-usury laws and were able to attract large banks to move their credit card operations to that state.
In the United States, banking had begun by the 1780s, along with the country's founding. It has developed into a highly influential and complex system of banking and financial services. Anchored by New York City and Wall Street, it is centered on various financial services, such as private banking, asset management, and deposit security.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is an independent bureau within the United States Department of the Treasury that was established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all national banks and federal thrift institutions and the federally licensed branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States. The acting Comptroller of the Currency is Michael J. Hsu, who took office on May 10, 2021.
David Kemp Karnes was an American politician, businessman, and attorney. He was a United States Senator from Nebraska from 1987 to 1989, and was president and chief executive officer of The Fairmont Group Incorporated, a merchant banking/consulting company with offices in Omaha and the District of Columbia. Karnes also served in an "of counsel" capacity to the national law firm of Kutak Rock and practiced out of the firm's Omaha, Nebraska and Washington, D.C. offices. Karnes was also involved in numerous civic, educational, and charitable organizations both in Nebraska and nationally.
Total System Services, Inc., is an American financial technology company headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. In 2019, TSYS was merged into Global Payments Inc. TSYS is the largest third-party payment processor for issuing banks in North America, with a 40% market share, and one of the largest in Europe. It provides payment processing services, merchant services and related payment services. It also provides reloadable prepaid debit cards and payroll cards, and demand deposit accounts to the underbanked.
First National of Nebraska, Inc. is an interstate bank holding company based in Omaha, Nebraska, and is the parent company of First National Bank of Omaha. It is an affiliate of the Lauritzen Corporation and is primarily owned by the Lauritzen family. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States and is the oldest national bank headquartered west of the Missouri River.
Marquette Bank Minneapolis, formerly named the Marquette National Bank, was a bank in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was party to Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp., an important decision by the Supreme Court of the United States which regulated the banking industry.
Lauritzen Corporation is a financial and interstate bank holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, US. Lauritzen Corporation currently has bank branches in Nebraska and Iowa, and has total assets of approximately $1.36 billion. In addition to banks, Lauritzen Corporation has five holding companies and 15 insurance or financial companies. Lauritzen Corporation has an approximately 28% voting share in First National of Nebraska, Inc. It is one of the 50 largest banks in the United States ranked by total deposits, and is ranked among the top 200 United States banks by The Banker financial journal.
The Omaha National Bank Building was built in 1888–89 at 1650 Farnam Street in Downtown Omaha, Nebraska. Built in the Italian Renaissance style, the building was saved from demolition by a rehabilitation in 1978. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, the building was originally known as the New York Life Insurance Building; it was renamed in 1906.
Augustus Kountze was an American businessman based in Omaha, Nebraska, Kountze, Texas and New York City. He founded a late 19th-century national banking dynasty along with his brothers Charles, Herman and Luther.
Marquette Nat. Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp., 439 U.S. 299 (1978), is a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that state anti-usury laws regulating interest rates cannot be enforced against nationally chartered banks based in other states. Justice William Brennan wrote that it was clearly the intent of Congress when it passed the National Banking Act that nationally chartered banks would be subject only to federal regulation by the Comptroller of Currency and the laws of the state in which they were chartered, and that only Congress or the appropriate state legislature could pass the laws regulating them.
Smiley v. Citibank, 517 U.S. 735 (1996), is a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding a regulation of the Comptroller of Currency which included credit card late fees and other penalties within the definition of interest and thus prevented individual states from limiting them when charged by nationally-chartered banks. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for a unanimous court that the regulation was reasonable enough under the Court's own Chevron standard for the justices to defer to the Comptroller.
Kutak Rock LLP is a US law firm, founded in 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. As of January 2021, it had more than 500 attorneys in 19 offices across the U.S. In 2020, Kutak Rock LLP was ranked as the 94th largest law firm in the U.S. based on number of attorneys and 124th based on revenue.
First Bank System was a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based regional bank holding company that operated from 1864 to 1997. What was once First Bank forms the core of today's U.S. Bancorp; First Bank merged with the old U.S. Bancorp in 1997 and took the U.S. Bancorp name.
Joseph M. Otting is an American businessman and government official. He served as the 31st Comptroller of the Currency from November 27, 2017 to May 29, 2020.
Global Payments Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company that provides payment technology and services to merchants, issuers and consumers. In June 2021, the company was named to the Fortune 500. The company processes payments made through credit cards, debit cards, and digital and contactless payments.
Keith A. Noreika is an American lawyer who specializes in the regulation of financial institutions. He served as Acting Comptroller of the Currency from May 5, 2017, to November 27, 2017, following the 30th Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas J. Curry, and preceding the 31st Comptroller of the Currency, Joseph Otting. Noreika rejoined the law firm of Simpson Thacher on January 8, 2018. He joined Patomak Global Partners as Executive Vice President and Chairman of its Banking Supervision and Regulation Group on July 5, 2022.
Brian P. Brooks is an American lawyer, banker, entrepreneur, technologist, and former government official. He served as Acting Comptroller of the Currency from May 29, 2020, succeeding the 31st Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting, until January 14, 2021. Brooks was nominated twice by President Donald Trump for a five-year term as Comptroller of the Currency, once during the 116th Congress, and once in the 117th Congress.
In the United States, a national bank is an ordinary private bank operating within the federal government's regulatory structure, which usually but not always operates in multiple U.S. states, and is under the supervision of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Depending on the matter, it also may have to comply with some U.S. state regulations. It is legally required to be a member of the Federal Reserve System. A national bank in the U.S. is distinguished from a state bank, whose permit or charter is granted by one of the U.S. states, and can only do business in that state.
Valid when made is a United States legal doctrine that holds that the terms of a loan, if legally valid when the loan was made, remain valid after the loan is sold or assigned to a third party. Historically, the doctrine has often been applied to loans made by national banks and then transferred to secondary lenders. Under this doctrine, debt buyers may purchase loans from national banks and collect interest at the same rate as the original lender, regardless of the usury laws of the state they operate in.