Welcome to the Top 5 Percenter™ Blog

The best banks in America aren’t winning because they got lucky with rates, markets, or geography.

They’re winning because they’ve built an entirely different operating system.

They don’t tolerate cultural drift. They don’t chase volume at the expense of value. And they don’t rely on slogans to produce performance. They engineer systems that connect culture, customer value, premium pricing, and individual accountability directly to profitability.

In this video, you’ll discover what Banky Award-winning institutions are doing differently—and why those differences matter more than ever.

They: 

  • Engineer performance instead of hoping for it. Top banks build repeatable systems that turn strategy into measurable results.
  • Align every role with profitability. Employees understand how their daily decisions contribute to the bank’s performance.
  • Build a culture strong enough to protect independence. The goal isn’t simply to be a good community bank. It’s to become an institution strong enough to control its future.

The difference between good and extraordinary isn’t one brilliant idea. It’s what your bank repeatedly executes after everyone else goes back to business as usual.

Want to see what that looks like in action? Join us at the 11th Annual Best Banks in America™ Super Conference and discover how top-performing banks are raising the bar.

Watch the video now. 

Hi. I’m Roxanne Emmerich, founder of the Best Banks in America Super Conference and chair of the Institute for Extraordinary Banking. In this video, I’m pulling back the curtain on what separates the best banks in America from everyone else.

You’ve seen their names. You’ve heard the buzz. But what exactly are the Banky Award-winning banks doing differently? The answer: pretty much everything.

They don’t tolerate cultural drift, and they don’t chase volume. They engineer value, performance, and premium pricing. They use systems, not slogans. They align every role to profit.

They build magnetic cultures that make people want to stay, buy more, and refer. And when I asked them, “What’s their biggest difference?” many told me it started at Super Conference. And that’s where they first saw what a performance culture really looks like, then came back and built it.

Every year at Super Conference, I hear from bank CEOs, “Oh my gosh. I got two years’ worth of notes for implementation ideas.” And I hear from many, including Jill Moss from Farmers State Bank, who basically came the first year and said, “How will I ever be performing at the same level as some of these banks?” And then, two years later, having implemented those processes, they were recognized as one of the top banks in the country.

It’s about taking the good and making it great.

You’ll want to be at the Super Conference along with your executive team, and bring some board members too, so that you have a cohesive team that all understands: if you’re gonna play this game, play it to win and be one of the top performers.

Let’s face it. Only the top performers will be allowed the luxury of independence in the future. And as a community bank, one of your most important goals is to make sure that your name stays on that door for years to come and that you keep making a difference in your community.

That’s the end game.

So let’s raise the bar, and I’ll see you at Super Conference.

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