Rainier Bancorp was the Seattle-based parent corporation of Rainier National Bank, a Washington state-based bank with branches throughout the state. Rainier traced its roots back to the National Bank of Commerce, which was founded by Richard Holyoke in 1889. The name Rainier National Bank was adopted in 1974. Rainier Bancorp. expanded into Alaska with the purchase of People's Bank & Trust in 1983 and into Oregon in 1986, expanding further in Oregon in 1987 with the government assisted purchase of Lincoln S&L Assoc. After a brief bidding war with First Bank System

U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp is a diversified financial services holding company, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States based on $330 billion in assets. U.S. Bank ranks as the sixth largest bank in the U.S. based on...

, Rainier Bancorp. was acquired by Security Pacific Corp. in 1987. At the time of its acquisition, it was the second largest bank in the state.

In 1992 Security Pacific Bank merged with San Francisco

San Francisco, California

San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

-based BankAmerica (now called Bank of America), a deal that was at the time one of the largest bank mergers in history. Federal regulators, however, forced the divestiture of over half of the former Rainier Bank Washington state franchise (having been renamed Security Pacific Bank Washington, N.A. in 1989), as the combination of BankAmerica's Seafirst subsidiary and Rainier would have given BankAmerica too large a share of the retail banking market in Washington state. While 82 branches were retained and consolidated with Seafirst, 38 were sold to West One Bancorp (now itself merged into U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp

U.S. Bancorp is a diversified financial services holding company, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the parent company of U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States based on $330 billion in assets. U.S. Bank ranks as the sixth largest bank in the U.S. based on...

) and 48 to KeyBank.