A locally owned Yampa Valley Bank has made its way into the top 10 community banks, placing fourth among 67 in the state of Colorado, according to a Bank Performance Report released earlier this week.

“This may be our top ranking, but consistently we’ve been in the top 10,” said PJ Wharton, president and chief executive officer for Yampa Valley Bank in Steamboat Springs. “We work hard to put our customer first, and our customers are rewarding us by banking with Yampa Valley Bank.”

Wharton said every bank in the nation is required, once a quarter, to file what is referred to as a call report, with specific and very detailed numbers that Bank Performance Report takes into consideration.

“They rank everything from size of the bank to efficiency to asset quality, which is very, very important,” Wharton said. “What’s the quality of the loan portfolio, and then earnings and they take all of those combinations to come up with these rankings.”

Wharton said the Yampa Valley has several establishments community banks that fall under the umbrella of community banks, including Mountain Valley Bank, Alpine Bank, and Bank of Colorado, which has an office in Craig.

Yampa Valley Bank is owned by 72 local families that collect deposits and then loan back 82% of those deposits into the communities of the Yampa Valley.

“That’s really the secret sauce of community banking,” Wharton said.  “Our number one focus is the Yampa Valley, our ownership is from the Yampa Valley, our employees live in the Yampa Valley, and then all of our investment goes right back to the Yampa Valley.”