Regional banks are on the rise, and Walla Walla’s Banner Bank is among those on top according to Forbes. 

The national business magazine’s 2025 list of America’s Best Banks put Banner Bank at No. 27 out of 100, noting that the institution’s publicly traded stock price has grown nearly 70% over the past year. Banner has four branches across the Tri-Cities. 

The 200 largest publicly traded banks and thrifts by assets were eligible for the list, with Forbes ranking the top 100. Banks that are subsidiaries of larger institutions were excluded, as were banks where the top-level parent is based outside the U.S. Data to determine the rankings came from S&P Global Market Intelligence. 

Forbes noted that regional financial institutions are operating more efficiently than national banks, leading them to dominate this year’s list. 

“Led by Mount Olive, North Carolina’s Southern Bank at number one, none of the banks in the top 10 have more than $25 billion in assets, and JPMorgan Chase is the only trillion-dollar institution on the list at all,” Forbes stated. 

Tacoma-based Columbia Bank was the only other Washington bank to be included on the list at No. 79. Columbia Bank is a subsidiary of Portland, Ore.-based Umpqua Bank, which has branches in Pasco and Richland.