American Banker's annual ranking examines midsize banks with the best financial metrics.

Customers is also adding a team of bankers that had worked on the financing.

The Roseville, California institution is expanding into the Bay Area in hopes that it can land new clients and lenders in the wake of two large regional failures there this year.

A new bank has taken the top spot on American Banker's annual list of the highest-performing institutions with less than $2 billion of assets.

The top 200 publicly traded banks with less than $2 billion of assets capitalized on their strong loan portfolios and interest income. But given a shift in the economic environment and banking industry, performance challenges are expected to intensify through 2023.

The Dallas-based institution has hired Dan Sheehan, a veteran banker and the former CEO of Professional Bank, to head the effort that will include opening a branch in Palm Beach County later this year.

The seller announced the delay to give it time to solicit more votes in favor of the deal. It plans to push a June 13 meeting to next month, when shareholders will decide whether to approve the transaction.

After shares dropped in the aftermath of recent failures, most banks demonstrated resilience and investors started to buy back into the sector.

Paulding County, northwest of Atlanta, is Georgia's second-fastest growing county, but after years of consolidation just one community bank has a branch there.

Beach Cities Commercial Bank is set to open in Southern California next week. Rising interest rates and consolidation in recent decades have created more opportunities for investors to form new banks, experts said.

Bankers and a key government supervisor say the downfalls of multiple regional lenders reminded regulators that traditional M&A is better for the industry than failed-bank-deals.

Nusenda's agreement to buy Western Heritage Bank would be its first bank acquisition and the first such combination in the state.

The parent of the $1.1 billion-asset CBI Bank & Trust said it would buy McLaughlin Holding and its SENB Bank unit.

Cogent Bank in Orlando says it took two branches in the Southwestern part of the state less than three years to amass $400 million of deposits.

An activist investor blasted the appointment of Andrew Cohen, saying he has long served on the Philadelphia bank's board and shares responsibility for its financial troubles.

In May's roundup of American Banker's favorite stories: Washington state plans to provide mortgage assistance to help address historical discrimination, an insider look at how Comerica is faring with the Treasury's Direct Express program, the fall of First Republic Bank and more.