An award is easy to win once. Winning it two years in a row is a pattern. For the second consecutive year, Security Bank & Trust Co. has been named one of the best regional banks in Minnesota, earning a 5-star top rating on Newsweek's America's Best Regional Banks & Credit Unions list for 2026. Last year's recognition told you we were doing something right. This year's tells you it was not an accident.
If you are weighing where to keep your money, that consistency is the part worth paying attention to. A single good year can come from a lucky quarter. Back-to-back recognition comes from how a bank actually operates, week after week, for the people who walk through its doors. You can see our 2025 recognition as one of America's best regional banks for the start of that track record.
America's Best Regional Banks & Credit Unions 2026, produced by Plant-A Insights Group in partnership with Newsweek, is one of the largest studies of its kind. It is also one of the harder ones to game, because it leans heavily on what real customers say rather than on how loudly a bank markets itself.
Here is what went into the 2026 evaluation. More than 8,800 banks and credit unions were screened on financial benchmarks such as profitability and net loans and leases. From that pool, the study surveyed more than 66,000 U.S. customers between July and September 2025 across 12 categories, including customer service, fees and interest rates, and perks and benefits. Responses from prior years were folded in as well, bringing the total to data from more than 140,000 people. On top of the survey work, the researchers analyzed roughly 2.3 million social media reviews and more than 80 million app store reviews.
Out of all of that, only 500 banks nationwide made the final list. Earning a 5-star rating in Minnesota two years running puts Security Bank & Trust Co. in a small group, and it puts us there for reasons we can actually stand behind: how we treat customers, how we price, and how we show up.
Most people do not wake up thinking about bank rankings. What they think about is whether their bank picks up the phone, whether the answer they get is the right one, and whether the person on the other end knows their name. A ranking like this is useful because it turns those everyday experiences into something measured by an outside party rather than claimed in an ad.
For a personal banking customer, the practical translation is simple. A bank that scores well on customer service and fees is a bank that is less likely to surprise you, easier to reach when something goes wrong, and more likely to treat a small account with the same care as a large one. You can open the same personal checking and savings accounts almost anywhere. The difference is who is standing behind them.
For a small business owner, the signal is about reliability. When you need a decision on timing, a question answered before a closing, or a banker who understands your cash flow, you want a partner who is consistent. Our business banking team is built around local decisions made by people who live in the same communities as the businesses they serve.
If you have ever felt like a number at a large national bank, the value of community banking is exactly this: accountability you can find by name. That is the heart of what makes us different, and it is what these rankings keep pointing back to.
If you are thinking about whether your current bank is the right fit, that is a conversation we are always glad to have. You can talk with one of our bankers without any pressure to switch.
We have said this before, and we will keep saying it, because it is true. An award that is built on customer surveys is not really our award. It belongs to the people who answered honestly about their experience, and to the employees who earned those answers one interaction at a time.
Security Bank & Trust Co. has been doing this work since 1935, when we opened our doors in Glencoe. We marked our 90th anniversary in 2025, and we now serve customers from 21 locations across Minnesota, spanning Anoka, Carver, Hennepin, Isanti, McLeod, Ramsey, and Sibley Counties. We are large enough to offer the tools you expect from a modern bank and small enough that the decisions about your money still get made close to home.
That local focus shows up beyond banking, too. Through community giving, volunteer hours, and long-term local commitments, we try to return value to the places our customers live and work, because a community bank is only as strong as the community around it.
This 2026 recognition does not stand alone. It sits on top of a steady run of independent honors that all point in the same direction.
A year ago, the same Newsweek list named us one of the best regional banks in Minnesota for 2025. To start 2026, we were recognized again across several independent lists, including statewide honors for business banking. You can read the full roundup of our 2026 honors for the complete picture.
Beyond personal and business deposits and loans, our trust and wealth management group works with Minnesota families on longer-term planning, another area where consistency and trust matter more than flash. The thread through all of it is the same. We grow by keeping the customers we have, not by chasing the ones who only follow the highest teaser rate.
Yes. Security Bank & Trust Co. earned a 5-star top rating on Newsweek's America's Best Regional Banks & Credit Unions list for 2026, the second consecutive year it received the recognition. The ranking is based on financial benchmarks, a survey of more than 66,000 U.S. customers, and millions of online reviews.
The ranking is produced by Plant-A Insights Group in partnership with Newsweek. It combines independent financial data with large-scale customer surveys and analysis of social media and app store reviews, so the result reflects real customer experience rather than advertising.
A regional or community bank like Security Bank & Trust Co. concentrates on a defined geographic area and makes lending and service decisions locally. A large national bank operates across many states and often routes decisions through centralized teams. The practical difference customers notice most is responsiveness and whether a real person knows their situation.
Security Bank & Trust Co. serves customers from 21 locations across Anoka, Carver, Hennepin, Isanti, McLeod, Ramsey, and Sibley Counties. You can find the nearest branch on our locations page.
Rankings are a helpful starting point, but they are not the whole story. What matters most is how a bank treats you on an ordinary Tuesday, not just on the day it issues a press release. Two years of independent, customer-driven recognition is a strong signal that the ordinary Tuesdays here look the way you would want them to.
If you are looking for a top-rated community bank in Minnesota, or you are simply curious whether a local relationship would serve you better than where you bank now, we would welcome the conversation. You can talk with one of our bankers whenever the timing is right for you.
Thank you to our customers and our employees. This recognition is yours, too.