ST. LOUIS — Five St. Louis-area banks rank in the top 10 in Missouri in financial performance, according to analytics firm Banker's Caddy.
The top performers with local branches in 2020 and their state rankings were Bank of Old Monroe, with $471 million in assets, second; Cass Commercial Bank, with $1.1 billion in assets, third; HNB National Bank, with $568 million, fourth; Paramount Bank, with $171 million, fifth; and M1 Bank, with $378 million, sixth.
Other banks with St. Louis branches that rank in the top 20 include MRV Bank, Central Bank of St. Louis, The Missouri Bank and Stifel Bank & Trust.
To compile the ranking, Banker's Caddy analyzed 18 performance ratios that measure a bank’s earnings, asset quality, capital, growth and liquidity, weighted in that order of importance.
"Banks are seeing the lowest net interest margins in at least 20 years because of low interest rates," said Trent Briden, data analyst at Banker's Caddy. "Because of that, two business models are especially successful, those with low operating expenses and those with strong mortgage loan business."
The Bank of Old Monroe and Cass Commercial have unusually low expenses. "And M1 is a bank that has managed to keep expenses low while growing rapidly," Briden said.
Paramount Bank, Central Bank of St. Louis and HNB National have had robust mortgage loan business.
It is notable that four of the five St. Louis-area banks have total assets of less than $600 million. "That's a function of high asset quality and low expenses," said Kirk Briden, Banker's Caddy president. "Slow and steady wins the race."
Click here for the full story.
