Iowa's West Bank ranks second in nation for efficiency

Northwestern Financial Review, Apr 15, 2001

West Bancorp. Inc., holding company for the $832 million West Bank, Des Moines, Iowa, again ranks among the most efficient in the country. Sheshunoff Information Services, a division of Thompson Financial which also publishes the American Banker newspaper, ranks the bank as the second-most efficient at year-end 2000.

West Bank's efficiency ratio of 28.99 percent means the bank spends just 28.99 cents for every dollar earned, an outstanding number compared to a national peer group average of 64 cents.

West Bancorp. Inc., is a one-bank holding company with eight locations throughout greater Des Moines.

"West Bank has always been known for its profitability," said West Bank's CEO, David L. Miller. "The two most important contributing factors to our profitability are credit quality and expense controls. Expense management is an important part of our culture, allowing us to offer competitive rates on our deposit and loan products."

Joyce Chapman, vice president and treasurer of West Bancorp, and executive vice president of West Bank, stated cost control is the number one factor in maintaining efficiency.

"We manage with a lot of close cost control," said Chapman. "We watch costs on every level. For eight locations, we have about 115 employees which is very low."

Another measure of efficiency is how many employees a bank has per million dollars in assets. West Bank's year-end assets-to-employee ratio was $7.3 million. The national peer group average on assets per full-time employee is $2.8 million.

Chapman stated that cost-control and managing credit quality has not come at the expense of customer service. "We very much emphasize customer service and get most of them by referral," she stated, adding that customers have been extremely satisfied with how well the bank is running.