Jan 17 (Reuters) - US Bancorp reported a drop in fourth-quarter profit on Wednesday after the lender incurred a charge related to replenishing a government deposit insurance fund.

The bank's profit fell 14% to $0.49 per share.

US Bancorp is part of a group of banks mandated to replenish a government insurance fund that was depleted of $16 billion following the collapse of some regional lenders.

US Bancorp had a charge of $734 million tied to the fee it has to pay to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to refill the fund.

On an adjusted basis, the bank reported a profit of $0.99 per share in the fourth quarter, compared with $1.20 per share a year earlier.

US Bancorp's net interest income, or the difference between what banks earn from lending and pay out on deposits, fell 4.2% to $4.14 billion in the quarter.

Average total deposits at the bank fell 1.9% from the third quarter to $502.78 billion.

In December, federal banking regulators fined U.S. Bancorp $36 million over allegations of illegally blocking out-of-work consumers from accessing unemployment benefits during the pandemic. (Reporting by Sri Hari N S in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Shounak Dasgupta)