Signature Bank named best in America by Forbes

Citing a long record of strong earnings and high asset performance, Forbes put Signature Bank atop its annual “America”™s Best and Worst Banks” list.

Signature Bank, which has branches in New Rochelle and White Plains and about 30 locations in the New York metropolitan area, has nearly $26 billion in assets and a market capitalization of approximately $6.09 billion. Privately held businesses and their owners and managers form Signature”™s core clientele. The bank also provides investment, insurance, brokerage and wealth management services as well as equipment financing through two subsidiaries.

“Signature has racked up an impressive financial performance. It has posted 20 straight quarters of record earnings,” wrote Forbes reporter Kurt Badenhausen in the Dec. 22 article, which utilized data from SNL Financial to rank the 100 biggest banks by assets in terms of asset quality, capital adequacy and profitability.

Badenhausen noted that Signature Bank”™s revenue grew 21 percent in the past year, and that its 13.8 percent return on average equity, a measure of profitability over the past 12 months, was fifth among the nation”™s 100 largest banks.

Signature also ranked in the top five among the 100 banks ranked by Forbes for nonperforming assets as a percent of total assets (0.1 percent), nonperforming loans as a percent of total loans (0.15 percent) and reserves as a percent of nonperforming loans (634 percent). A nonperforming loan is defined as a loan upon which the debtor has not made scheduled payments for 90 or more days.

“Our client-centric team philosophy has been at the core of our business model since the bank”™s inception in 2001, resulting in 20 consecutive quarters of record earnings and consistently setting deposit and loan growth records,” said Joseph J. DePaolo, the president and CEO of Signature Bank, in a press release. “We attribute our fifth consecutive top-10 finish on the Forbes list of America”™s Best Banks to our ability to attract some of the industry”™s most experienced relationship bankers who bring an unwavering commitment to our clients.”

In addition to being placed to the top of the Forbes list, Signature Bank was named Best Business Bank by the New York Law Journal in September.