Citizens Bank is an FDIC-insured bank founded in 1934 and currently headquartered in Elizabethton, TN. Regulatory filings show the bank having equity of $103.3 million on assets of $825.1 million, as of December 31, 2017.
With 193 full-time employees in 14 offices in TN, the bank has amassed loans and leases worth $574.7 million, including real estate loans of $432.2 million. U.S. bank customers currently have $667.4 million in deposits with the bank.
Overall, Bankrate believes that, as of December 31, 2017, Citizens Bank exhibited a superior condition, earning a full 5 stars for safety and soundness. Keep reading for an analysis of how the bank did on the three major criteria Bankrate used to score U.S. banks on safety and soundness.
Capital acts as a buffer against losses and provides protection for account holders when a bank is experiencing financial trouble. It follows then that a bank's level of capital is a useful measurement of a bank's financial strength. When looking at safety and soundness, more capital is better.
Citizens Bank did better than the national average of 13.13 points on our test to measure capital adequacy, achieving a score of 14 out of a possible 30 points.
One way to measure this buffer is looking at a bank's Tier 1 capital ratio. Citizens Bank's Tier 1 capital ratio was 15.15 percent, above the 6 percent level considered adequate by regulators, but below the national average of 25.65 percent. A higher capital ratio suggests the bank will be better able to weather financial difficulties.
Overall, Citizens Bank held equity amounting to 12.46 percent of its assets, which exceeded the national average of 12.03 percent.
Having lots of these types of assets suggests a bank could have to use capital to cover losses, cutting down on its buffer of equity. It also means that there are likely to be many assets that are in non-accrual status and no longer earning money, diminishing earnings and elevating the chances of a failure in the future.
On Bankrate's test of asset quality, Citizens Bank scored 40 out of a possible 40 points, beating the national average of 37.49 points.
The percentage of problem assets a bank holds compared to its total assets is a handy indicator of asset quality.As of December 31, 2017, 0.53 percent of Citizens Bank's loans were noncurrent, meaning they were more than 90 days past due or were in non-accrual status. That's below the national average of 1.01 percent.
Banks maintain a reserve to deal with problem assets known as an "allowance for loan and lease losses." Comparing the reserve's size to the total amount of problematic loans can be a handy indicator when evaluating a bank's ability to manage troubled assets. Unfortunately, the FDIC did not provide information on Citizens Bank's loan loss allowance in its most recent filings.
How profitable a bank is affects its long-term survivability. Earnings can be retained by the bank, increasing its capital cushion, or be used to address problematic loans, likely making the bank more resilient in times of trouble. Conversely, losses diminish a bank's ability to do those things.
Citizens Bank did above-average on Bankrate's earnings test, achieving a score of 24 out of a possible 30.
One important measure of a bank's earnings is return on equity, calculated by dividing net income (profit, basically) by the total amount of equity. The most recent annualized quarterly return on equity for Citizens Bank was 14.90 percent, above the national average of 8.10 percent.
For the twelve months ended December 31, 2017, the bank earned net income of $14.9 million on total equity of $103.3 million. The bank experienced an annualized return on average assets, or ROA, of 1.75 percent, above the 1 percent deemed satisfactory in accordance with industry standards, and above the average for U.S. banks of 1.00 percent.