Banks, generally, are thriving in the US, 10 years after the financial crisis (see chart). But bankers, regulators and analysts say it is a particularly positive time for the country’s 20 or so regional banks, which lie between the thousands of small community banks and the largest global banks.
Wayne Abernathy, executive vice-president for financial institutions, policy and regulatory affairs at the American Bankers Association, is unequivocal. When asked: “Are regional banks in a good place at present?’ he replies: “They have never been so well capitalised and never had such a clean balance sheet. These are all the survivors, the ones that came out of the Great Recession stronger than when they went in.”
