Marquette Bank Minneapolis, formerly named the Marquette National Bank, was a bank in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. 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 The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

which regulated the banking industry.

History

Originally named the Marquette National Bank, it was chartered in 1920 and was named for Marquette Avenue, the financial center of

. The bank was eventually acquired by

Carl Pohlad Carl Ray Pohlad (August 23, 1915 – January 5, 2009) was an American financier from Minnesota. Pohlad is best known as the owner of the Minnesota Twins baseball franchise from 1984 (succeeding Calvin Griffith) until his death in 2009. In 2 ...

and had $350 million in assets in 1982 when it acquired the failing Farmers and Mechanics Savings Bank of Minneapolis (F&M) and had nearly $1 billion of assets prior to sale which was arranged by the

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is one of two agencies that supply deposit insurance to depositors in American depository institutions, the other being the National Credit Union Administration, which regulates and insures cred ...

. After the acquisition, the name was changed to Marquette Bank Minneapolis and it had the fourth most assets in the state. The bank was owned by the Bank Shares, Inc. holding company which was controlled by the Pohlad family and which owned several other banks in the Minneapolis area using the Marquette name. Bank Shares announced the sale to

First Bank System 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 ...

(now

US Bank U.S. Bancorp (stylized as us bancorp) is an American bank holding company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and incorporated in Delaware. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank National Association, and is the fifth largest banking institution ...

) in January 1992 with the deal finally closing in December 1992 for $200 million in stock.

Interest rate battle

Marquette was involved in lengthy

credit card interest Credit card interest is a way in which credit card issuers generate revenue. A card issuer is a bank or credit union that gives a consumer (the cardholder) a card or account number that can be used with various payees to make payments and borrow m ...

rate litigation with the

First National Bank of Omaha First National Bank Omaha is a bank headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The namesake and leading subsidiary of First National of Nebraska, it is the third largest privately held bank subsidiary in the United States with $17 billion in assets and 43 ...

which resulted in an important US Supreme Court ruling regulating the banking industry. Marquette brought suit against First National, claiming the interest rate charged Minnesotan customers using First National credit card services (

VISA Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

), though legal in Nebraska, exceeded the interest rate allowed under Minnesota state law. Marquette was also issuing cards but did not exceed the interest rate permitted by the law in the cardholder's state. The court ruled in 1978 that a federally chartered bank like First National could offer credit card services nationwide and the maximum interest rate to cardholders was that allowed by the state the bank was located in and not the customer's state. This ruling prompted some US states (South Dakota, Delaware, Utah, Virginia, New Hampshire) to repeal their maximum interest rate laws. Banks offering credit card services quickly established offices and cardholder services in those States to take advantage of the "no cap" interest rates allowed by the state.

References

External links

US Supreme Court ruling
- MARQUETTE NAT. BANK v. FIRST OF OMAHA CORP., 439 U.S. 299 (1978)

- PBS Frontline Report {{Authority control U.S. Bancorp Banks based in Minnesota Defunct companies based in Minneapolis Banks established in 1920