Northwest On Bank Honor Roll For Third Year

WARREN, Pa., April 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwest Bancshares, Inc., (Nasdaq Global Select Market: NWBI), parent company of Northwest Savings Bank, has been named to the "Bank Honor Roll" of superior performers by KBW, Inc., a full-service investment bank that specializes in the financial services sector. Northwest is one of only 47 U.S. banking institutions to be named to the list.

KBW screened nearly 400 publicly-traded banking companies with assets of more than $500 million to assemble the list. To merit Honor Roll status, banks must meet three conditions.

1) They cannot have reported any annual loss in net income per share before extraordinary items over the past 10 years;

2) Their 2012 annual reported net income per share before extraordinary items must be equal to or greater than their peak net income per share over the past 10 years; and

3) They must show consecutive increases in net income per share before extraordinary items since 2009.

This is the third consecutive year that KBW has selected Northwest Bancshares, Inc. to be on the Bank Honor Roll.

Northwest's President and CEO, William J. Wagner, noted, "Given the challenges the banking industry has faced over the past years, our Directors, officers and employees are proud to be recognized for the strong operating performance we achieved during such a tumultuous time. We thank KBW for this honor and we remain committed to improving our value proposition for employees, customers, communities and shareholders."

Northwest Bancshares, Inc. operates Northwest Savings Bank, a community bank with assets of $8 billion and a network of 166 banking locations in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Maryland.

SOURCE Northwest Bancshares, Inc.