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Almena State Bank topped the S&P Global Market Intelligence ranking of the best-performing community banks with less than $1 billion in assets in 2015.
There's no place like home for the Kansas-based bank, which has remained at its original location on Main Street in Almena since being chartered in 1934. Currently led by Chairman, President and CEO Shad Chandler, Almena State Bank opened its second branch in Norton County in 1995 and added a third branch through its acquisition of Atwood, Kan.-based Farmers State Bank in mid-2015. The acquisition helped Almena grow loans by 83.20% in 2015. As of year-end, about a quarter of the bank's loan portfolio consisted of agricultural production loans, while commercial and industrial loans accounted for another 20.90% and farm loans made up 11.41%.
Almena State Bank finished 2015 with $63.3 million in assets, a 3.19% return on average tangible assets and a net interest margin of 5.31%. Although its efficiency ratio was close to 10 percentage points higher than the median for the top 100, credit quality was a particular source of strength, with recoveries exceeding charge-offs.
Almena took the No. 61 spot in the 2013 ranking, but fell out of the top 100 in 2014.
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