SVB Financial Group in Santa Clara, Calif., has appointed a former U.S. Treasury official to its board.

Nearly 100% of all urban riots in America have occurred where the market economy either failed or didn't exist to begin with. Banks are well positioned to help bring economic opportunity to underserved neighborhoods and make free enterprise work for all.

First Bank in Hamilton, N.J., has opened its first office in Pennsylvania.

Triumph Bancshares in Memphis says it has been mistakenly contacted by customers of Triumph Bancorp in Dallas, and has concluded that the Triumph moniker isn't big enough for both institutions. It's hoping a lawsuit will force the Texas bank to change its name.

The chief executive of CertusBank in Greenville, S.C., has officially stepped down after undergoing heart surgery.

Presidio Bank in San Francisco has added longtime California banking executive James Westfall to its board of directors. He will serve on the bank's audit and asset liability committees.

MoneyGram has renewed its relationship with Minnesota's Bremer Bank to assist with its check services.

All banks must manage risk. But this needn't be their sole focus any more than a restaurateur's sole purpose should be to prevent contaminants from getting into food.

U.S. consumers in the first quarter borrowed more to pay for education and automobiles, but overall their debt burden was relatively flat, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., is planning to raise at least $48 million by selling preferred stock.

First Farmers and Merchants Bank in Columbia, Tenn., has hired a former Regions Financial banker to run its wealth management operations.

The $1.1 billion-asset company said in a press release Monday that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation had terminated a May 2013 order against its Talbot Bank.

BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Fla., has hired Hakim Kassam, a former Wells Fargo banker, to run its small business finance department.

A former chief financial officer at Bank of McKenney in McKenney, Va., has been indicted on two counts of embezzlement.

First Commonwealth Bank in Indiana, Pa., has agreed to buy First Community Bank in Columbus, Ohio, for about $15 million in cash.

Flushing Financial in Uniondale, N.Y., has sold three branch properties in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Top-performing community banks have found different ways to provide double-digit returns, despite numerous challenges facing the banking industry.

Looking past standard gauges of return on equity and return on assets, bank investors have wide opinions on what makes a bank a high-performing institution relative to peers.

A number of this year's top-performing banks have been able to ride the highs and lows of the economic cycle to still produce long-term returns to investors.

What makes for a high-performing bank? We take an in-depth look at what drove profitability for the institutions at the top of our annual rankings, all of which are based on three-year average returns on equity. See the list of banks and thrifts with under $2 billion in assets or the mid-tiers with $2 billion to $10 billion of assets. Stay tuned as those with $10 billion to $50 billion of assets are still to come.