 MALVERN, Pa., Oct. 05, 2021 GLOBE NEWSWIRE -- For the second year in a row Meridian Bank has earned a spot on Piper Sandlers Sm-All Stars, its list of top performing U.S. small-cap banks. Piper Sandler, a leading middle-market investment bank and institutional securities firm, publishes this list annually in order to uncover the next crop of stellar mid-cap banks before they are discovered by the rest of the world, according to the report. To earn Sm-All Star status, companies needed to have a market cap below 2.5 billion and needed to out-perform industry medians in the following metrics: Earnings per share EPS growth, loan growth, deposit growth, and return on average equity ROAE. Meridian ranked third on the Sm-All Stars List in EPS growth at 155, compared to the national median of 27.7. Meridian ranked second on the list in return on average equity at 27.2, compared to the national median of 11. 