Return on equity (ROE): Return on equity is a bank’s profit measured against the shareholder capital standing behind it.
How it is calculated
Annualized net income divided by average total equity capital, on the same two point average basis as return on assets.
Formula
ROE = annualized net income / average total equity
What banks reported in Q2 2026
Across every bank that filed for Q2 2026, the median return on equity was 11.55%, with the middle half between 7.59% and 15.67%. The right comparison is almost always the row for the bank’s own size rather than the industry line.
| Bank size (total assets) | Bottom quartile | Median | Top quartile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $100M | 3.31% | 8.15% | 12.61% |
| $100M - $300M | 7.40% | 11.50% | 15.89% |
| $300M - $1B | 8.44% | 12.47% | 16.89% |
| $1B - $3B | 8.51% | 11.73% | 15.31% |
| $3B - $10B | 9.96% | 12.69% | 14.96% |
| $10B - $100B | 8.78% | 10.68% | 14.18% |
| Over $100B | 10.20% | 12.70% | 16.48% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026. Quartiles are calculated across the full population of filing banks in each size band, not sampled. Non-insured non-deposit trust companies are left out of every statistic: they take no deposits and make no loans, so a margin or a funding cost computed for them has no meaning.
How to read it
ROE is what a shareholder actually earns, which is why it is the number a board watches. It also rewards leverage: a bank with half the capital and the same earnings posts twice the ROE and carries half the cushion. Read it beside the tier 1 leverage ratio and it loses the ability to flatter.
The common mistake. Comparing ROE across banks with very different capital levels and calling the higher one better run. Return on assets is the fairer comparison, because it does not pay a bank for being thin.
Go deeper
- What is a good ROE for a bank?
- BankingLens pricing and what a subscription adds: percentile rank against the bank’s own FFIEC peer group, fourteen quarters of trend, and the flags an examiner reaches for first.
See also. Return on assets, Tier 1 leverage ratio, Equity to assets.
Every figure on this page is computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026 and is not modeled, estimated or sampled. This page is generated by _tools/seo/build_glossary.mjs and carries no figure that was typed in. See our methodology and disclaimer. Definitions are general guidance, not regulatory or investment advice.