Bank Director Names State Bank Financial Corp. Among Top Performing Banks in U.S.

ATLANTA, Aug. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- State Bank Financial Corporation (NASDAQ: STBZ) once again has been named among the top performing banks in the United States, according to Bank Director magazine's 2012 Bank Performance Scorecard, a ranking of U.S. publicly traded banks and thrifts based on 2011 calendar-year financials.  The scorecard is a ranking of 467 U.S. financial institutions divided into four categories by asset size. State Bank ranked fourth among the 195 banks in the $1 billion-to-$5 billion-asset category. The next closest Georgia bank on the scorecard was ranked 104^th.

"The Bank Director ranking is a great way for State Bank to celebrate its third anniversary," said Joe Evans, chairman and CEO of State Bank. "We intend to continue building a customer-focused bank that we hope will be among the top-ranked banks in Bank Director's Scorecard for many years to come."  On July 24, 2009, State Bank consummated its first FDIC-assisted acquisition: acquiring the banking franchise of Macon, Georgia-based Security Bank Corp.  In total, State Bank has completed 12 acquisitions facilitated by the FDIC and continues to grow its presence in Middle Georgia and metro Atlanta.

In previous years Bank Director ranked the 150 largest public U.S. banks as a single group. Last year, State Bank ranked #1 on the 2011 Bank Performance Scorecard. This year Bank Director's editors broadened the list to include all publicly traded banks divided into categories by size.  

Bank Director's analysis, compiled by investment banking firm Sandler O'Neill + Partners, L.P., ranked institutions based on three critical areas: profitability, capital and asset quality. The scorecard uses "return on average assets," "return on average equity," and "ratio of tangible common equity to tangible assets" as a measurements of profitability and capital strength. The rankings also gauged a bank's "ratio of non-performing assets to loans and other real estate owned," and "ratio of net charge offs to average loans" to measure asset quality.

State Bank's composite ranking in these categories placed it fourth in its class.  It recorded a 1.17 percent return on average assets (#22 ranking), an 8.56 percent return on average equity (#60), 14.2 percent tangible common equity to tangible assets (#14), 0.48 percent non-performing assets to loans and other real estate owned (#2), and a 0.29 ratio of net charge offs to average loans (#43), for a composite score of 118.5.

Bank Director magazine's Third Quarter edition and the Bank Scorecard rankings are available online at http://www.bankdirector.com/magazine/archives/3rd-quarter-2012/going-for-gold-2012-bank-performance-scorecard/

About State Bank Financial Corporation and State Bank and Trust Company  
State Bank Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:STBZ) is the holding company for State Bank and Trust Company, one of Georgia's best-capitalized banks, with approximately $2.67 billion in assets as of June 30, 2012. State Bank has locations in Metro Atlanta and Middle Georgia. State Bank Financial Corporation is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and State Bank and Trust Company is headquartered in Macon, Georgia.

State Bank was named the best performing community bank in the United States for 2011 by SNL Financial LC for banks between $500 million and $5 billion in assets.

Since 2009, State Bank has been an active acquirer of the assets and deposits of failed banks in Metro Atlanta and Middle Georgia. To date, State Bank has completed 12 transactions facilitated by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

To learn more about State Bank, visit www.statebt.com   

SOURCE State Bank Financial Corporation