What a year it was. In 2020, community banks contended with a fast and furious Paycheck Protection Program lending boom and a glut of deposits as customers put their stimulus payments away for a rainy day. They dealt with lockdown orders, changes in consumers' banking habits and rapid-fire adoption of technology to meet those needs. Yet community banks rose to the occasion. Independent Banker's annual listing of America's best-performing community banks shows that nimble thinking and an adherence to good old-fashioned customer service can bring success, whatever the circumstances. ÂIllustration by Ben Fearnley How we compiled these rankings ICBA compiled this year's rankings with the aim of recognizing community banks that are consistent high performers. Using FDIC data, we took into account pre-tax return-on-assets (ROA) figures from the past three years, with the most recent year weighted at 3x, second most recent year at 2x and third most recent year at 1x. We then divided the community banks into three broad segments based on asset size and ranked each segment based on our threeyear weighted average ROA. A bank must have a rating of C or higher by Kroll Bond Ratings (formerly LACE) to be considered for ranking. independentbanker.org Q 37http://www.independentbanker.org