Short answer: The median US bank earned an annualized 1.23% on its assets in the first half of 2026, across 4,230 banks. The middle half ran from 0.83% to 1.65%. Of those banks, 65.7% were at or above 1.00%, and 169 (4.0%) lost money year to date. Judge a bank against its own size band or FFIEC peer group: for savings banks and commercial banks under $50M, even the median is below 1.00%.
Size moves the spread more than the median
The FDIC's Quarterly Banking Profile put industry ROA at 1.37% for the second quarter, a dollar-weighted aggregate that leans toward the biggest balance sheets. The median, 1.23% for the first half, describes the typical bank. Split by total assets, the medians sit close together. The quartiles don't.
| Bank size (total assets) | Banks | Bottom quartile | Median | Top quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All banks | 4,230 | 0.83% | 1.23% | 1.65% |
| Under $100M | 537 | 0.46% | 1.00% | 1.52% |
| $100M to $300M | 1,213 | 0.78% | 1.22% | 1.67% |
| $300M to $1B | 1,433 | 0.87% | 1.28% | 1.70% |
| $1B to $3B | 626 | 0.88% | 1.20% | 1.61% |
| $3B to $10B | 263 | 1.07% | 1.34% | 1.63% |
| $10B to $100B | 126 | 0.99% | 1.26% | 1.58% |
| Over $100B | 32 | 1.03% | 1.20% | 1.41% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026. ROA is annualized year-to-date net income over average total assets.
From $100M up, the medians run from 1.20% to 1.34%. Under $100M, the middle half stretches from 0.46% to 1.52% and the 10th percentile is a loss of 0.23%; over $100B it runs from 1.03% to 1.41%. One charged-off loan or one bond sale can decide a small bank's year. A large bank absorbs the same events in a much bigger book.
Overhead and margin pull in opposite directions as banks get smaller. The median efficiency ratio is 70.24% under $100M against 55.08% over $100B, while net interest margins run wider at the small end. Above $100M the two largely offset. Below it, overhead wins and the median falls to 1.00%.
FFIEC peer groups, with savings banks set apart
Size bands lump every charter together. The FFIEC's UBPR peer groups also split banks by charter type, which makes them the better yardstick. Commercial banks fall into groups 1 to 8, set by asset size alone since the FFIEC cut the commercial groups from 17 to 8 in February 2026 (FFIEC update).
| Peer group | Commercial banks with assets of | Banks | Bottom quartile | Median | Top quartile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Over $100B | 29 | 1.02% | 1.16% | 1.34% |
| 2 | $10B to $100B | 114 | 1.00% | 1.25% | 1.55% |
| 3 | $3B to $10B | 227 | 1.12% | 1.36% | 1.63% |
| 4 | $1B to $3B | 528 | 0.96% | 1.28% | 1.68% |
| 5 | $300M to $1B | 1,273 | 0.98% | 1.35% | 1.75% |
| 6 | $100M to $300M | 1,080 | 0.89% | 1.29% | 1.71% |
| 7 | $50M to $100M | 320 | 0.68% | 1.13% | 1.58% |
| 8 | Under $50M | 133 | 0.31% | 0.95% | 1.43% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026. Membership from the FFIEC's UBPR peer group file.
Commercial banks under $50M are the only group with a median below 1.00%, and a quarter of them earned 0.31% or less. In group 5, the largest, the top quartile begins at 1.75%.
Savings banks have groups of their own, 101 to 104, and their ROA runs far lower: medians of 0.87% over $1B, 0.64% at $300M to $1B, 0.59% at $100M to $300M and 0.38% under $100M. A book of residential mortgages funded with time deposits earns a thinner spread than commercial lending. Put the median savings bank from $300M to $1B next to commercial group 5 and its 0.64% falls below that group's bottom-quartile cutoff of 0.98%, so an ordinary savings bank looks broken.
Where the gap between top and bottom quartile comes from
We split the 4,230 banks at the national quartile cutoffs, 1,058 at 1.65% or better and 1,058 at 0.83% or worse, and compared the medians of their other ratios. Most of the distance is overhead and margin; loan volume and credit quality barely register.
| Median for each group | Top quartile ROA | Bottom quartile ROA |
|---|---|---|
| Banks | 1,058 | 1,058 |
| ROA | 1.65% or higher | 0.83% or lower |
| Efficiency ratio | 49.51% | 80.34% |
| Net interest margin | 4.36% | 3.36% |
| Cost of funds | 2.26% | 2.43% |
| Nonperforming loans to loans | 0.39% | 0.58% |
| Loans to deposits | 81.42% | 79.82% |
| Equity to assets | 11.46% | 10.18% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports for the quarter ending June 30, 2026. Medians within each quartile.
The efficiency ratio shows the widest gap. The median top-quartile bank spent 49.51% of its revenue on noninterest expense; the median bottom-quartile bank spent 80.34%. The first keeps about half of each revenue dollar before provisions and taxes. The second keeps less than a fifth, and one problem credit can eat that.
Margin is the other large difference, 4.36% against 3.36%, and the two measures feed each other. Net interest income is most of a community bank's revenue, and revenue is the efficiency ratio's denominator, so a wider margin lowers the ratio before anyone cuts a cost. Part of that 80.34% is a revenue shortfall showing up as an expense ratio.
Funding explains little of the margin gap. Cost of funds, interest expense over interest-bearing liabilities, was 2.26% for the top quartile and 2.43% for the bottom. The rest comes from what the assets yield and how much of the balance sheet rests on money that pays no interest: noninterest-bearing deposits and equity.
Two things barely separate the groups. Loans to deposits were 81.42% and 79.82%, so the top quartile isn't simply lending out more of its deposits. Nonperforming loans were 0.39% and 0.58%, both low. The NPL ratio misses credits already charged off, and this split doesn't measure provision expense, but a 0.58% median doesn't describe banks losing their earnings to bad loans.
The trend since 2023, compared like for like
Under the call report instructions, income is reported calendar year to date, so a first-quarter ROA is one quarter annualized and only the fourth quarter covers a full year. Compare a quarter with the same quarter a year earlier: the median was 1.23% at Q2 2026, against 1.06% at Q2 2025 and 0.91% at Q2 2024.
| Median ROA | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 (full year) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1.05% | 1.02% | 1.01% | 0.96% |
| 2024 | 0.88% | 0.91% | 0.93% | 0.93% |
| 2025 | 1.00% | 1.06% | 1.10% | 1.10% |
| 2026 | 1.18% | 1.23% |
Source: BankingLens, computed from FFIEC call reports. Medians across insured banks and savings institutions, year to date and annualized.
The low in our series was 0.88% in Q1 2024. Part of the drop from 0.96% at year-end 2023 is the calendar: the full-year figure still included the first half, when the median was 1.02%, while Q1 2024 stood on three months alone. The whole distribution has moved up since: from Q2 2024 to Q2 2026 the bottom-quartile cutoff rose from 0.51% to 0.83% and the top-quartile cutoff from 1.36% to 1.65%.
Adjust for these before comparing two banks
Subchapter S banks pay no federal income tax at the bank level; their shareholders do. After tax, they look better than a C corporation with the same pre-tax earnings. In a peer set that mixes the two, compare income before income taxes, annualized, over average assets. Schedule RI carries that line and also asks whether the bank has a Subchapter S election in effect.
A bond repositioning drags a year down. The realized loss on low-yielding securities sold to reinvest hits Schedule RI when the bank sells, and a first-quarter loss stays in every year-to-date ROA through December. The payoff comes later, in margin, so check realized securities gains and losses before calling a peer's year weak.
Gains push the other way. Premiums on sold mortgages and on the guaranteed portions of SBA loans swing with origination volume, and selling a branch or a foreclosed property books a gain that won't recur. Strip both out before treating a high ROA as normal.
High capital lifts ROA. Equity carries no interest expense, so a bank funded with more of it earns more on the same assets and shows a lower return on equity. Top-quartile ROA banks had a median equity to assets of 11.46%, against 10.18% in the bottom quartile. Retained earnings explain part of that, but a heavily capitalized peer's ROA still flatters its operations.
One bank, read against its own group
Frost Bank, the San Antonio bank on our public sample scorecard, reported an annualized ROA of 1.31% for the first half of 2026. In FFIEC peer group 2, commercial banks with $10B to $100B in assets, the median is 1.25% and the middle half runs from 1.00% to 1.55%; Frost sits at the 56th peer group percentile.
Frost's net interest margin of 3.58% is at the 51st peer group percentile and its efficiency ratio of 60.59% at the 26th, so most peers spend less per revenue dollar. With those two figures, an above-median ROA points to lines neither ratio captures, such as the provision, taxes or fee revenue relative to assets.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good ROA for a bank?
The median US bank earned an annualized 1.23% on its assets in the first half of 2026, and the middle half of banks ran from 0.83% to 1.65%. A good ROA beats the median of the bank's own FFIEC peer group, and a strong one reaches that group's top quartile.
What is the average ROA for community banks?
We report medians, because a few extreme results pull an average around. For the quarter ending June 30, 2026, the median ROA was 1.00% for banks under $100M in assets, 1.22% for $100M to $300M, 1.28% for $300M to $1B and 1.20% for $1B to $3B.
Is a 1% ROA good for a bank?
Not for most banks in 2026. The median was 1.23%, so a bank at 1.00% sat in the bottom half, with 65.7% of banks at or above it. The old 1% rule of thumb fit 2024 better, when the median bottomed at 0.88%. For savings banks and for commercial banks under $50M, 1.00% is above the middle.
Why do some profitable banks have low ROA?
ROA divides earnings by the whole balance sheet, so a steadily profitable bank can still post a low ratio. Balance sheets heavy in residential mortgages or securities earn less than commercial loan books, and a one-time loss on bonds sold to reinvest at higher rates can weigh on a full year. A C corporation also looks worse after tax than a Subchapter S bank with the same pre-tax earnings.
How is bank ROA calculated?
Bank ROA is net income divided by average total assets. Call report income is year to date, so it is annualized: a second-quarter ROA is six months of net income doubled. BankingLens averages total assets at the prior year-end and the current quarter-end, and other averaging methods give slightly different figures.
Where these numbers come from
The BankingLens figures on this page are computed from the call reports of the 4,238 FDIC-insured banks and savings institutions that filed for the quarter ending June 30, 2026, the same count the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile reports; 4,230 of them have an ROA. We leave out the 58 non-deposit trust companies that also file call reports: they take no deposits, make almost no loans and would distort every distribution. You can see every one of these ratios for a real bank, ranked against its FFIEC peer group, on the sample scorecard for Frost Bank. Plans that cover your state or every bank start at $29 a month (pricing).