Ameriprise Financial, Inc., is in the process of moving its bank charter from New York to Minneapolis, a company representative confirmed Monday.

Ameriprise Bank is unlike most other banks in that there are no brick-and-mortar locations. Instead, the bank's offerings and services are available exclusively to clients working with Ameriprise Financial's approximately 10,000 financial advisors across the country.

Minneapolis-based Ameriprise Financial started the bank in 2006-one year after it spun off of American Express Company, which had provided banking services to clients through its own bank.

Since then, Ameriprise Bank has grown from having a mostly online presence to directly supporting Amerprise Financial's advisors, according to company spokesman Paul Johnson.

Given that shift and the close relationship between the bank and the company's financial advisors, it made sense for the bank to be chartered in the same city where Amerprise Financial is headquartered, Johnson told Twin Cities Business on Monday. Additionally, most of the bank's 92 employees are already based in Minneapolis.

As of September 30, Ameriprise Financial owned, managed, or administered $649 billion in assets. The bank, meanwhile, had $3.6 billion in assets as of September 30-up 28.6 percent from $2.8 billion during the same time last year. Ameriprise Bank's profit during the first three quarters of 2010 totaled $7.4 million, marking a substantial improvement from the $2.1 million loss reported for the first nine months of 2009.

Ameriprise Financial is Minnesota's 10th-largest public company based on revenue, which totaled $7.8 billion in 2009.