Every morning at the branches of the privately-owned Bell Bank in North Dakota, customers smell freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. For patrons of the bank, it’s both a warm welcome and a reminder of the level of in-person service they’ve come to expect at this regional bank.
“We start by focusing on making sure that this is a place that employees love to work at, that they’re proud of where they work,” says Michael Solberg, president and CEO of Bell Bank. “We know that if we get that part of the equation right, that they’ll take great care of our customers, and that the financial aspect of our business will take care of itself.”
Bell Bank’s welcoming environment and top-tier service undoubtedly helped the bank earn the No. 1 rank in North Dakota on Forbes’ list of America’s Best-In-State Banks 2025, which was produced in tandem with America’s Best-In-State Credit Unions 2025.
To create the eighth annual edition of these lists, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista, which surveyed 26,000 United States residents. Respondents were asked how satisfied they were and how likely they were to recommend the U.S.-based banks and credit unions at which they have a checking or savings account, those at which they had an account within the last three years, and those they knew through friends and family. (Online-only banks and credit unions were excluded, as well as larger institutions with branches in 15 or more states.) Participants were also asked to rate their financial institutions on factors including trust, customer service, digital tools, the quality of financial advice given, and whether fees were transparent and reasonable.
Additionally, Statista gathered more than 500,000 publicly available text reviews and ratings about each bank and credit union written between February 2022 and March 2025. This research was incorporated into the analysis, accounting for 20% of each financial institution’s score, while the surveys accounted for 80%. The banks and credit unions with the highest overall scores made our rankings—with 191 banks and 222 credit unions recognized in one or more states.
Each list underscores the notion that while top regional banks and credit unions may not always have the vast resources that larger national banks do, these smaller financial institutions often offer unique services that help build trust and loyalty.
Sometimes, being on the small side can also mean speedier service. At Stockman Bank (No. 1 in Montanna), it’s not unheard of for bank representatives to work on traditional bank holidays to get a job done. Bill Coffee, the bank’s chairman and CEO, says that before a recent holiday weekend, a Stockman banker received a call from a longtime customer who needed a large bank loan quickly to buy two properties on which to develop hotels. If this customer didn’t act fast, the deal would be offered to a competitor in the hotel industry.
Two loan officers cut their long weekend short and came into the office on Monday, their day off, to write up the loans. “They dropped everything,” says Coffee, “because they knew how much this meant to the customer.” That Tuesday, the officers got the approvals they needed, and the customer was able to take advantage of the lucrative opportunity he had. “I don’t know how many banks could get $40 million dollars worth of approvals done that quickly,” says Coffee, who notes that this level of swift service comes from “on-the-ground knowledge of the issues and needs of our individual local communities.”
For credit unions, which are not-for-profit financial corporations owned and run by its members, community is at the core of everything they do. In fact, credit unions truly took hold in the U.S. during the Great Depression—when the Federal Credit Union Division was created in 1934—largely as an alternative to traditional banks, which had failed by the thousands, leaving many Americans in dire straits.
Credit unions were established “during this moment of economic pain,” says Tansley Stearns, leader of Backbone, a new coalition of credit unions. It was a time, she explains, when people with resources essentially said, “‘Hey, we have some savings. Let’s pull that together, and those that need loans can safely have those loans, and we can do that jointly.’”
That ethos is still central to credit unions today. “We believe that we’re more than a financial institution,” says Stearns, who is also the president and CEO of Community Financial Credit Union (No. 8 in Michigan). To that end, Community Financial has partnered with First Step, an organization supporting Michigan residents who’ve been impacted by domestic and sexual violence. “We listened to survivors through that partnership and then came up with a loan program that allows us to ensure that those who wish to leave have the resources to do so, whether that’s getting access to a car for the first time, or maybe that’s a down payment on a first apartment.” The goal, says Stearns, is to be a stabilizing force in the community.
For Cadence Bank (No. 1 in Mississippi), a 149-year-old bank with branches across the Gulf states, a primary concern has been making sure both bank staff and customers are aided in the event of natural disasters. In an area of the U.S. that can experience extensive damage after a hurricane or tornado, this may mean offering time off or financial assistance to employees or free meals and waived fees for customers. In April, for example, after a tornado whipped through Selmer, Tennessee, the bank hosted a two-day cookout and served 500 meals to storm victims.
“It’s really hard for our folks to focus on taking care of customers if they’re worried about their personal situation,” says Dan Rollins, the bank’s CEO and chairman. “We work very hard to make sure that we’re supporting them so that they can take care of their families.” If the bank’s staff feels safe, Rollins says, then they can take care of customers.
WaFd, headquartered in Seattle, earned multiple top rankings, including No. 1 bank in Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon; and No. 3 in Washington. Like many regional banks, WaFd strives to make things easier for individual customers and small businesses alike. WaFd’s executive vice president and chief experience officer, Cathy Cooper, who has spent 37 years with the bank, recounts a recent issue with the bank’s mobile app in which customers’ running balances weren’t showing real-time updates when transactions were made. The bank had been working on a fix, but customers were eager to know when the issue would be resolved. That’s when the bank’s president and CEO, Brent Beardall, got involved and responded directly to individual customers to explain what was happening. “We take our customers’ feedback very seriously and it starts at the very top,” says Cooper.
Cadence Bank’s Rollins says this is exactly the type of direct service that inspires customer loyalty. “If [customers are] willing to recommend us to someone else, that’s not because our technology worked correctly,” says Rollins. “That’s not because they got their statement on time via email. Those things are invisible, and they happen, and it’s just part of doing business. They’re recommending us because they had a problem and we fixed the problem, or we cared enough about the problem to stay connected to them and take care of their needs.”
For the full list of the Best-In-State Banks, click here.
For the full list of the Best-In-State Credit Unions, click here.
Methodology
To create the rankings for America’s Best-In-State Banks and Best-In-State Credit Unions 2025, Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista for the eighth straight year and surveyed approximately 26,000 U.S. residents. Respondents were asked how satisfied they were and how likely they were to recommend the U.S.-based banks and credit unions at which they have a checking or savings account, those at which they had an account within the last three years, and those they knew through friends and family. (Online-only banks and credit unions were excluded, as well as larger institutions with branches in 15 or more states.) Participants were also asked to rate their financial institutions on factors including trust, customer service, digital tools, the quality of financial advice given, and whether fees were transparent and reasonable.
Additionally, Statista gathered more than 500,000 publicly available text reviews and ratings about each bank and credit union written between February 2022 and March 2025. This research was incorporated into the analysis, accounting for 20% of each financial institution’s score while the surveys accounted for 80%. The banks and credit unions with the highest overall scores made our rankings—with 191 banks and 222 credit unions recognized in one or more states.
As with all Forbes lists, companies pay no fee to participate or be selected. To read more about how we make these lists, click here. For questions about this list, please email listdesk [at] forbes.com.
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