The Stairs to High Performance: 2015 Year End Financials

​“There is no elevator to success. You will have to use the stairs... one step at a time"
       --Joe Girard

2015 was a steady year for community banking in the sense that the industry did not experience any major rises or dips in performance. The real matter of importance, however, is whether performance levels are where they need to be in an industry that is consolidating.
The answer unfortunately is emphatically “no.”

We have laid out our research and analysis in this paper to act as a tool for community banks. We urge you to use the graphs to track where your bank currently stands compared to the Highest Performing banks and make a succinct plan to work towards High Performer status. However, we note that this process takes time and banks must tackle improving performance by taking it “one step at a time.” Incremental performance improvement should be an initiative on every single community bank’s 2016 list- no matter where
performance currently stands.