Bright spots despite the backslide: Our annual ranking of regional banks

Scale is often an advantage for banks even in the best of times, but its importance became more pronounced for banks with $10 billion to $50 billion of assets at the height of the pandemic.

The median asset size of the 10 regional banks that rose to the top of our annual ranking was $25.5 billion at year-end, which was 36% larger than the median for the overall peer group. Drawing on the reach and economies of scale afforded by their size advantage, the standouts effectively pursued as much small-business and mortgage loan volume as possible last year, capitalizing on the only two sectors that saw any borrower demand at all, said Claude Hanley, a partner at Capital Performance Group.

2020 Regional Bank Rankings - Double Digit Loan Growth

That lending push helped minimize a general backslide in performance. For those in the top 10, the median return on average equity for 2020 declined by 99 basis points from the prior year, to 13.27%.

That was half as much as the drop for the overall peer group, whose median tumbled 210 basis points, to 7.62%, according to data from CPG, which compiled our annual ranking.

"Success here is defined by not losing as much ground," Hanley said of the regionals.

(Click on “view table” at the end of this article to see the ranking for this year and click on the links below to go to the regional bank rankings from past years.)

See regional rankings from past years:

Expect margins to keep causing migraines (2020)
Pressure is on regionals to boost fee income (2019)
'Grow and grow fast:' The newbie rule for regional banks (2018)

The Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program helped immensely with fueling lending for the regionals, particularly among the most nimble.

"Banks in this group used their size and operational capabilities to their advantage,” outmaneuvering some of the biggest banks that struggled to keep up with demand, Hanley said.

Lending activity was especially high at Flagstar Bancorp and Midland Financial compared with 2019, propelling them into the top 10.

Flagstar made the biggest leap of all in the rankings — to No. 3 from 29. Its large mortgage business and PPP activity helped fuel year-over-year loan growth of 42.03%. (Flagstar announced a deal in April to sell itself to New York Community Bancorp.)

Net loan growth for the top 10 as a group was significantly higher than that of peers: a median of 16.02% compared with 8.92%. And that volume, in turn, helped to defray the impact of their expense growth, which also outpaced the peer group.

With interest rates at historic lows, mortgage volume was a bright spot for many of the regionals, and top performers had a much higher concentration of one-to-four-family home loans to gross loans than peers (35% versus 22.5%).

At sixth-ranked Midland Financial Co., for example, these loans made up 62% of total loans at year-end. Midland Financial, which climbed to No. 6 in the ranking, from No. 11 a year earlier, also dove into the PPP effort.

It boasted some of the highest annual loan growth of any regional bank for 2020 — 46.69%.

Ally Akins, a senior analyst at CPG, said the leading banks in this ranking also tended to do well with managing operating expenses last year. While their noninterest expense growth exceeded peers in general, their median ratio of noninterest expenses to total assets shrank 29 basis points from a year earlier, to 2.07%, compared with a smaller improvement of 16 basis points for the peer group, which posted a 2.21% median.

Hanley said he expects lending activity to continue to be a key differentiator for banks with $10 billion of $50 billion in assets. "I think top performance is going to really depend on who can take advantage of the growth opportunities that come along with the economic rebound," he said.

Click on "view table" below to see the latest ranking.

For American Banker’s paid subscribers only: If you have a paid subscription to American Banker, you can request, for a very limited time, an Excel chart of this ranking that includes additional data and analysis by Capital Performance Group. To receive a reply, the request for this subscriber bonus must be received by bonnie.mcgeer@arizent.com no later than July 29 and sent from the email address tied to the subscription. Include the subscriber's name and the name of the institution in the body of the email. Please put “midtier ranking request” in the subject line. Subscriptions will be verified and replies will follow at some point AFTER July 30. (Please note that the Excel chart will not be sent before that date.)

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Fee income proves to be key: Our 2021 ranking of midtier banks

Rank Institution/Ticker City/State Total Assets ($000) 3-Year Avg. ROAE (%) ROAE (%) ROAA (%) Net Income ($000) Total Nonint. Income ($000) Pre-Tax Net Income Growth (%) Nonint. Expense Growth (%) Efficiency Ratio FTE (%) Net Interest Margin FTE (%) Net Loan Growth (%)
1 ServisFirst Bancshares (SFBS) Birmingham, AL 11,932,654 19.56 18.55 1.59 169,569 30,108 12.77 9.31 29.6 3.31 16.7
2 Western Alliance  (WAL) Phoenix, AZ 36,461,000 17.23 16.07 1.61 506,600 48,493 2.94 1.83 39.4 3.97 27.77
3 Flagstar Bancorp (FBC) Troy, MI 31,038,000 17.22 26.22 2 538,000 1,309,000 62.24 28.52 56.52 2.8 42.03
4 Bank of Hawaii Corp. (BOH) Honolulu, HI 20,603,651 15.55 11.38 0.79 153,804 174,477 -51.13 -2.34 55.02 2.73 8.12
5 FirstBank Holding Co. Lakewood, CO 24,470,941 15.1 12.85 1.08 237,688 126,328 -15 -2.76 54.74 3.03 14.24
6 Midland Financial Co.* Oklahoma City, OK 29,640,441 14.8 18.1 1.22 382,278 200,690 27.09 13.37 49.06 3.4 46.69
7 Pinnacle Bancorp* Elkhorn, NE 14,753,226 14.33 13.41 1.32 181,042 99,198 7.2 8.16 53.79 3.41 14.37
8 First Financial Bankshares (FFIN) Abilene, TX 10,904,500 14.23 12.93 1.98 202,034 136,143 18.29 15.16 44.44 3.79 24.4
9 Commerce Bancshares (CBSH) Kansas City, MO 32,922,974 13.41 10.69 1.19 353,885 505,867 -20.54 0.13 56.94 2.99 10.71
10 Stifel Financial (SF) Saint Louis, MO 26,604,254 13.04 13.13 1.96 503,472 3,288,725 7.99 12.43 81.21 2.29 15.33
11 Hilltop Holdings (HTH) Dallas, TX 16,944,264 12.9 20.76 2.88 469,677 1,690,480 46.79 20.85 68.26 2.86 9.61
12 Eagle Bancorp (EGBN) Bethesda, MD 11,117,802 12.69 10.98 1.28 132,217 42,701 -11.72 -0.44 36.12 3.21 2.79
13 Bremer Financial Saint Paul, MN 15,770,370 12.51 11.44 1.05 155,042 149,944 -1.19 14.46 61.48 3.19 19.98
14 First Citizens (FCNC.A) Raleigh, NC 49,957,680 12.34 12.44 1.07 491,723 387,102 4.18 7.79 65.08 3.21 13.82
15 Glacier Bancorp (GBCI) Kalispell, MT 18,504,206 12.24 12.15 1.62 266,400 169,328 20.99 14.25 49.07 4.09 17.7
16 Cathay General (CATY) Los Angeles, CA 19,043,134 11.84 9.7 1.22 228,860 42,273 -37.57 1.98 47.98 3.12 3.5
17 Cullen/Frost (CFR) San Antonio, TX 42,391,317 11.34 8.2 0.87 331,151 356,465 -42.17 0.97 58.96 3.04 17.79
18 Home Bancshares (HOMB) Conway, AR 16,398,804 11.25 8.57 1.33 214,448 112,306 -38.86 3.12 39.77 4.02 1.93
19 United Community Banks (UCBI) Blairsville, GA 17,794,374 10.99 9.01 1.06 164,089 153,991 -13.97 14.47 54.13 3.55 28.72
20 WSFS Financial  (WSFS) Wilmington, DE 14,333,914 10.89 6.18 0.86 113,320 169,112 -34.09 4.1 54 3.95 5.7
21 Webster Financial  (WBS) Waterbury, CT 32,590,690 10.78 6.9 0.68 220,621 285,269 -73.83 6.1 63.49 2.98 7.21
22 NBT Bancorp (NBTB) Norwich, NY 10,932,906 10.63 9.09 0.99 104,388 146,664 -16.79 -0.24 57.58 3.31 4.45
23 BOK Financial  (BOKF) Tulsa, OK 46,671,088 10.39 8.54 0.89 435,071 834,039 -11.88 4.57 58.11 2.72 5.29
24 FB Financial  (FBK) Nashville, TN 11,207,330 10.3 6.58 0.75 63,629 301,000 -32.84 42.18 58.22 3.46 68.32
25 CVB Financial  (CVBF) Ontario, CA 14,419,314 10.2 8.9 1.37 177,159 45,002 -16.65 0.18 39.27 3.57 10.13
26 First Merchants Corp. (FRME) Muncie, IN 14,067,210 10.15 8.14 1.1 148,600 97,931 -14.01 11.02 50.52 3.29 8.68
27 Central Bancompany (CBCY.B) Jefferson City, MO 18,319,463 10.13 10.76 1.44 240,776 261,436 12.38 12.81 54.32 3.1 9.45
28 Independent Bank  (INDB) Rockland, MA 13,204,301 10.1 7.13 0.96 121,167 109,868 -42.71 4.49 54.7 3.29 5.64
29 International (IBOC) Laredo, TX 14,029,467 9.88 7.91 1.3 170,886 150,477 -21.82 -9.65 49.77 3.38 8.75
30 Bank OZK (OZK) Little Rock, AR 27,162,596 9.77 7.03 1.13 291,866 99,533 -50.02 3.06 40.67 3.81 8.55
31 UMB Financial  (UMBF) Kansas City, MO 33,127,504 9.69 10.21 1 286,502 439,532 15.62 4.65 67.42 2.81 19.17
32 BancorpSouth (BXS) Tupelo, MS 24,081,194 9.62 8.37 1 228,051 332,246 -4.16 4.38 61.31 3.36 7.01
33 Ameris Bancorp (ABCB) Atlanta, GA 20,438,638 9.6 10.35 1.36 261,988 445,547 37.81 47.83 52.18 3.7 7.01
34 Wintrust Financial  (WTFC) Rosemont, IL 45,080,768 9.6 7.46 0.71 292,990 606,115 -23.17 11.64 61.91 2.73 22.25
35 Simmons First (SFNC) Pine Bluff, AR 22,359,752 9.55 8.72 1.18 254,904 185,354 5.43 15.12 56.66 3.38 -11.21
36 Washington Federal (WAFD) Seattle, WA 19,063,622 9.52 7.25 0.82 146,096 53,237 -52.95 9.57 59.53 2.83 8.2
37 First Hawaiian (FHB) Honolulu, HI 22,662,831 9.51 6.88 0.85 185,754 202,322 -56.61 0.01 49.77 2.77 0
38 Customers Bancorp (CUBI) West Reading, PA 18,439,248 9.46 12.84 0.85 132,578 40,887 41.96 -7.59 47.66 2.71 56.96
39 TowneBank (TOWN) Portsmouth, VA 14,626,444 9.44 9.84 1.2 169,433 274,557 12.45 4.14 57.84 3.18 14.46
40 Trustmark Corp. (TRMK) Jackson, MS 16,551,840 9.41 9.52 1.05 160,025 274,593 8.42 7.67 64.07 3.19 12.72
41 First Interstate (FIBK) Billings, MT 17,648,700 9.38 8.12 1 161,200 156,400 -12.35 4.7 57.2 3.47 8.69
42 Heartland Financial (HTLF) Dubuque, IA 17,908,339 9.37 8.05 0.93 137,938 111,004 -5.82 -0.41 58.35 3.66 19.52
43 BankUnited (BKU) Miami Lakes, FL 35,010,493 9.36 6.9 0.57 197,853 115,454 -62.01 -3.68 50.97 2.35 2.38
44 Community Bank System (CBU) Onondaga, NY 13,931,094 9.25 8.13 1.28 164,676 228,425 -1.58 1.44 58.98 3.28 7.54
45 Sandy Spring Bancorp (SASR) Olney, MD 12,798,429 9.2 7.24 0.82 96,953 102,249 -22.85 25.5 46.19 3.35 53.87
46 First Busey Corp. (BUSE) Champaign, IL 10,544,047 9.04 8.09 0.97 100,344 115,664 -4.86 -7.14 52.75 3.03 0.8
47 Banner Corp. (BANR) Walla Walla, WA 15,031,623 9.03 7.14 0.83 115,928 97,604 -28.56 3.77 60.46 3.85 5.65
48 Boston Private (BPFH) Boston, MA 10,048,733 8.82 5.34 0.49 45,159 92,993 -90.54 3.84 71.84 2.69 1.86
49 Fulton Financial  (FULT) Lancaster, PA 25,906,733 8.8 7.35 0.73 178,040 226,335 -30.54 3.12 64.84 2.86 11.94
50 Texas Capital (TCBI) Dallas, TX 37,726,096 8.8 2.34 0.18 66,289 183,936 -345.6 9.12 60.95 2.38 -9.5
51 First Financial Bancorp. (FFBC) Cincinnati, OH 15,973,134 8.66 7.02 1 155,810 175,515 -31.69 13.7 55.97 3.51 6.65
52 Pinnacle Financial (PNFP) Nashville, TN 34,932,860 8.56 6.74 0.97 312,321 315,782 -33.98 9.02 46.26 2.87 12.46
53 Independent Bank (IBTX) McKinney, TX 17,753,476 8.48 8.26 1.23 201,209 84,717 2.42 3.13 45.12 3.57 12.61
54 Valley National (VLY) New York, NY 40,686,076 8.43 8.68 0.96 390,606 182,508 13.81 8.75 47.04 3.03 8.66
55 Associated Banc-Corp (ASB) Green Bay, WI 33,419,783 8.42 7.78 0.9 306,771 334,385 -24.33 -9.08 63.12 2.53 6.26
56 Old National Bancorp (ONB) Evansville, IN 22,960,622 8.29 7.87 1.04 226,409 228,507 -13.62 -1.7 55.59 3.18 13.28
57 Sterling Bancorp (STL) Pearl River, NY 29,820,138 8.28 4.99 0.74 225,769 121,254 -111.2 7.5 45.58 3.23 0.9
58 Columbia Banking System (COLB) Tacoma, WA 16,584,779 8.26 6.82 1 154,244 87,790 -25.58 -4.13 54.22 3.65 7.23
59 Prosperity Bancshares (PB) Houston, TX 34,059,275 8.15 8.85 1.62 528,904 131,534 35.01 39.72 40.85 3.64 6.25
60 TCF Financial  (TCF) Detroit, MI 47,802,487 8.12 4.05 0.48 230,041 499,008 -32.31 15.72 63.28 3.52 -1.22
61 Hope Bancorp (HOPE) Los Angeles, CA 17,106,664 8.01 5.49 0.68 111,515 45,521 -59.07 -1.95 52.95 3 9.3
62 Provident Financial (PFS) Jersey City, NJ 12,919,741 7.83 6.49 0.86 96,951 68,837 -15.32 9.78 56.35 3.06 33.58
63 First BanCorp. (FBP) Santurce, PR 18,793,071 7.66 4.59 0.67 102,273 91,781 -105.78 6.34 53.68 4.29 28.75
64 United Bankshares (UBSI) Charleston, WV 26,184,247 7.65 7.3 1.2 289,023 347,642 9.81 39 49.13 3.22 28.9
65 F.N.B. Corp. (FNB) Pittsburgh, PA 37,354,351 7.42 5.83 0.78 286,006 309,847 -37.07 2.97 55.68 2.91 9.1
66 Arvest Bank Group Bentonville, AR 24,390,299 7.32 4.91 0.47 106,872 586,196 -49.8 3.97 76.41 3.14 9.14
67 Atlantic Union (AUB) Richmond, VA 19,628,449 7.3 6.14 0.83 158,228 119,442 -24.13 10.68 55.71 3.32 10.56
68 Northwest Bancshares (NWBI) Warren, PA 13,806,268 7.23 4.72 0.58 74,854 132,135 -52.51 10.85 60.04 3.36 19.38
69 Investors Bancorp (ISBC) Short Hills, NJ 26,023,159 7.19 8.35 0.82 221,580 65,929 3.31 -2.98 51.62 2.77 -4.16
70 First Midwest (FMBI) Chicago, IL 20,838,678 7.07 4.2 0.53 107,898 159,182 -97.02 8.27 59.28 3.18 14.01
71 BCI Financial Group Miami, FL 18,622,588 7.03 5.51 0.64 110,152 73,112 -42.6 20.31 49.07 2.9 12.78
72 WesBanco (WSBC) Wheeling, WV 16,425,610 6.93 4.6 0.74 122,044 123,917 -33.18 16.62 54.56 3.37 5
73 Renasant Corp. (RNST) Tupelo, MS 14,929,612 6.85 3.96 0.58 83,651 235,486 -108.41 18.49 64.73 3.44 12.25
74 Hancock Whitney  (HWC) Gulfport, MS 33,638,602 6.55 -1.32 -0.14 -45,174 323,940 414.83 4.99 59.35 3.27 1.89
75 OceanFirst Financial  (OCFC) Red Bank, NJ 11,448,313 6.5 4.35 0.56 63,309 52,201 -32.47 30.04 58.2 3.15 24.85
76 Apple Financial New York, NY 16,172,148 6.39 1.66 0.14 22,870 15,202 -390.34 17.44 79.08 1.86 4.96
77 Eastern Bankshares (EBC) Boston, MA 15,964,190 6.3 1.11 0.16 22,738 177,911 -386.28 -1.51 69.13 3.19 7.82
78 Pacific Premier (PPBI) Irvine, CA 19,736,544 6.07 2.49 0.36 60,351 57,441 -199.93 29.18 49.86 3.74 49.27
79 Third Federal Savings Cleveland, OH 14,572,778 4.59 4.43 0.46 68,005 60,256 -8.66 0.79 64.61 1.64 -3.46
80 Cadence Bancorp. (CADE) Houston, TX 18,712,567 3.7 -9.46 -1.13 -205,527 131,395 247.2 116.67 47.34 3.58 -4.27
81 PacWest Bancorp (PACW) Beverly Hills, CA 29,498,442 -4.26 -32.08 -4.46 -1,237,574 131,789 154.45 296.44 43.37 4.05 0.14
82 Berkshire Hills Bancorp (BHLB) Boston, MA 12,838,013 -8.3 -37.5 -4.14 -533,017 72,587 123.26 218.88 69.43 2.75 -15.87
83 Great Western Bancorp (GWB) Sioux Falls, SD 12,814,383 -10.89 -51.15 -5.36 -682,763 -2,606 129.91 347.61 61.61 3.58 -3.6
84 Umpqua Holdings  (UMPQ) Portland, OR 29,235,175 -11.59 -51.08 -5.22 -1,523,420 401,400 132.2 257.52 58.29 3.23 3.09
                           
  Median: All 84 Institutions   18,667,578 9.37 7.62 0.91 164,383 150,211 -15.98 7.59 55.7 3.21 8.92
  Median: Top 10 Institutions   25,537,598 14.95 13.27 1.46 295,787 155,310 7.6 8.74 54.27 3.17 16.02
                           
  Average: All 84 Institutions   22,295,530 8.89 5.7 0.68 140,061 258,928 -18.96 22.86 55.47 3.2 12.43
  Average: Top 10 Institutions   23,933,164 15.45 15.33 1.48 322,837 591,903 5.19 8.38 52.07 3.17 22.04
Source: Capital Performance Group analysis of data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Ranking is of top consolidated bank holding companies, banks, and thrifts
with total assets of between $10 billion and $50 billion as of 12/31/20 and is based on three-year average ROAE from 2018 to 2020. Additional data is for the 12 months ended
12/31/20; year-over-year changes compare 2020 to 2019. Financials are from SEC filings. If unavailable, regulatory financials were used. Ties broken using the 2020 ROAE and
subsequently the 2019 ROAE.
Excludes industrial banks, nondepository trusts, foreign-owned banks, and bankers’ banks, as well as institutions with credit cards to total loans of more than 25%, loans to total
assets of less than 20%, or loans to total deposits of less than 20% at 12/31/20. Excludes institutions with a leverage ratio of less than 5%, Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of less
than 6%, or total risk-based capital ratio of less than 10% during any quarter in the ranking period. Excludes institutions that received a tax benefit of greater than 10% of net
income or that did not report data for any year in the ranking period. Also excludes institutions that have fewer than five depository branches and are owned by a company not
primarily focused on commercial or retail banking. Based on the preceding criteria, 11 institutions in this asset size range were excluded from the ranking. Of the 84 institutions that
qualified this year, 10 are newcomers that previously had total assets below the $10 billion threshold. Five institutions that appeared in last year’s regional ranking are no longer
here, three because their assets grew above $50 billion and two others because they were acquired.
*Denotes an institution that operated as a subchapter S corporation for at least one quarter between 2018 and 2020. Its profitability ratios were calculated from regulatory
financials and adjusted using an assumed tax rate.