The US's best bank 2018: BB&T

The eighth biggest bank in the US is on a roll. It has absorbed multiple acquisitions aimed at rebalancing its franchise, broken into corporate banking and wealth management, continued its digital development but at the same time espoused a philosophy that does not consider the branch to be dead. And it has done all this without losing sight of its corporate responsibility goals. Euromoney’s choice this year as the US’s best bank is BB&T.

Its financial performance has been stellar. First-quarter 2018 net income of $745 million was a record. Its return on assets and net interest margin are consistently above its peer group average. The balance sheet is looking better all the time: non-performing assets fell in the first quarter to 0.30% of assets, down from 0.36% a year earlier. Total shareholder return over the last 10 years has been 8.6%; for the S&P financials index it was 3.8%.

Kelly King, BB&T’s chief executive, says he has seen more change in banking in the last three years than in his previous 42 years at the firm.