Houston County Courier - Local News

Copyright 2012 - Polk County Publishing Company

Forbes rates Prosperity Bank as first among America’s best banks
Houston County Courier

Brandon Bridges, president of Prosperity Bank in Grapeland, recently announced Forbes has published their third annual list of America’s best banks and Prosperity Bank has been recognized as first. According to Forbes, “Prosperity Bancshares ranks first in our third annual look at America’s best and worst banks. The bank, with $9.6 billion in assets, operates 176 branches in Texas with one-third located in the Houston area where the bank is based.” Forbes states further, “The Texas housing market did not experience the boom that places like Florida and California did and the downturn was subsequently much milder. Texas is one of the few states where home prices are currently higher than they were five years ago. The Texas economy was one of the last states to enter into a recession and one of the first states to emerge from it.” According to Forbes, “Prosperity took advantage of the economic downturn and acquired $3.6 billion in deposits and assets of Franklin Bank in 2008 when federal regulators closed Franklin’s doors.” “Prosperity’s balance sheet matches Texas’ resilient economy as the bank’s non-performing loans as a percent of total loans (0.3 percent) and non-performing assets as a percent of total assets (0.2 percent) are among the lowest of any bank. The bank’s conservative nature is reflected in its ratio of reserves to non-performing loans which at 552 percent is tops among the 100 largest banks,” Forbes states further. According to Forbes, “The U.S. banking industry is slowly getting its foot ing after being on life support during much of the past three years ago. The FDIC’s 7,436 banks and savings institutions collectively earned $35 billion in the third quarter. It was the most profitable quarter since the three months ending in June 2007 (banks lost $38 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008).” Forbes states further, “While other big banks were forced to cut their dividends during the banking crisis, Prosperity maintained its dividend and has raised the payout for 12 consecutive years. The stock is up 1 percent this year and currently trades at 1.2 times its book value. The No. 2 ranked bank is Bank of Hawaii. Citigroup was ranked at No. 31, with J.P. Morgan following at No. 47. Wells Fargo was ranked at No. 83, and Bank of America was ranked at No. 89.