Northwest Bancorporation

Northwest Bancorporation ("Banco"), a Minneapolis-based bank holding company, was organized in 1929 by executives of the Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis. Conceived as a "group banking" organization, each member bank exchanged its stock for stock in the holding company. Each bank retained its unit structure and continued to operate on a local basis, with its own board of directors. The holding company was expected to provide specialized services that the member banks usually could not provide for themselves, and would sell stock to the public, with the proceeds used to protect member banks from adverse economic conditions.

Original member banks included Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis; First National Bank and Trust Company of Fargo, North Dakota; and the First National Bank of Mason City, Iowa. By early 1930 there were 105 affiliated banks located in 84 towns and cities in eight states. In 1983 Northwest Bancorporation included 86 commercial banks in seven states: Minnesota, Montana, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Banco had other subsidiaries engaged in leasing, mortgage banking, insurance, trust management, commercial financing, agricultural lending, and international banking. It also owned Northwest Growth Fund, Inc., a small business investment company.

Northwest Bancorporation's flagship bank, Northwestern National Bank of Minneapolis, was founded in 1872. The Minnesota Loan and Trust Company was organized in Minneapolis in 1883, became affiliated with the Northwestern National Bank in 1909, and was formally merged into Northwestern National Bank in 1934. Northwest Bancorporation became Norwest Corporation in 1983. In 1998 a merger between Norwest, then the nation's 12th-largest bank holding company, and Wells Fargo Bank, San Francisco, was in progress.