Health of state banks continues to improve

The quality of banks in Washington continues to improve, while credit unions in the state have seen a small decline, Bauer Financial reported this week.

The Florida-based financial institution rating service noted in its Fourth Quarter 2015 report that 80.8 percent of state banks earned “recommended” status, with 1.9 percent listed as troubled and problematic. These data compare with 72.9 percent of banks that were recommended at the end of the fourth quarter in 2014, and 8.5 percent that were troubled.

Among state credit unions, 91.6 percent were recommended, compared with 92.1 percent the year before, and 1.1 percent were troubled, against 1.0 percent at the end of 2014.

Nationwide, 79.3 percent of banks and 83.5 percent of credit unions were recommended.

The South Sound banks that received Bauer’s highest rating of five stars: South Sound, Olympia; Columbia, Tacoma; Commencement, Tacoma; Heritage, Olympia; Olympia Federal Savings & Loan, Olympia; and Sound Banking Co., Lakewood.

Local credit unions receiving the highest rating: America’s, JBLM; Cascade Federal, Kent; Community First, DuPont; Evergreen Direct, Olympia; IBEW 76 Federal, Tacoma; Mount Rainier Federal, Puyallup; Our Community, Shelton; Sound, Tacoma; Tacoma Longshoremen, Fife; Tacoma Narrows Federal, Ruston; Twinstar, Olympia; WCLA, Olympia; Washington State Employees, Olympia; and White River, Enumclaw.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Health of state banks continues to improve."