The best and worst banks

As the end of the year draws near, I’ve been reflecting on what a year it’s been for America’s banks. From debit card fee tests to very angry consumers to falling stock prices, we’ve seen many members of the banking industry take quite the hit in 2011. Of course, not all banks are bad, and Forbes has just released a new list of America’s best and worst banks.

Now, this list wasn’t based on customer satisfaction. Instead, the magazine partnered with a financial data provider to use eight factors to determine how healthy these banks really are. Here’s a rundown of the top 10:

1) Prosperity Bancshares
2) Bank of Hawaii
3) First Republic Bank
4) Community Bank System
5) Signature Bank
6) East West Bancorp
7) Commerce Bancshares
SVB Financial Group
9) First Citizens Bancshares
10) Cullen/Frost Bankers

What’s the one common trait among all of these bank-champs? (Yes, that was a bad attempt at a comedic reference to the title of my blog home here.) I’ve never heard of any of them! In a banking industry dominated by talk of too big to fail institutions, this list reveals that some of America’s smaller banks have managed to make their way to the top of the charts. In fact, none of these banks have assets that total more than $30 billion. Compare that with the $2.3 trillion – I really typed trillion – of JPMorgan Chase, and you’ll notice that bigger doesn’t always mean better. In fact, JPMorgan finished near the midway point of the list while Wells Fargo and Bank of America were close to the bottom of the 100.

Here’s a link to the full list of 100 financial institutions. Is your bank on here? Of course, it may not have made the top 100. The country has more than 7,400 FDIC-insured banks total.

Alright, time for a break from all the banking talk – happy holidays!