Introducing the top-performing banks of the year Through creativity, local knowledge and dedication to their customers, community banks continued to demonstrate the value of their relationship-based model in the past year. Independent Banker's annual listing of the Best-Performing Banks 2023 illustrates how critical it is for community banks to lean into their strengths while seeking out innovation to better serve Main Street America. Read on for the listings and the stories of success behind some of the winners. -Tiffany Lukk, managing editor, Independent Banker With contributions from Bridget McCrea, William Atkinson, Roshan McArthur Illustration by Agustina Gastaldi 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 three-year 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 // 33http://www.independentbanker.org