Generations-old Merchants Financial Group has grown organically and through acquisitions to 21 banks from Apple Valley to southeastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin.
It also is something of a proxy for the consolidating, increasingly profitable Minnesota banking industry since the Great Recession of 2007-09.
Merchants, which is owned partly by its 444 employees, just posted another year of record earnings of $14.15 million.
It saw the value of its stock rise in value by 27 percent to $54.40. The small business-and-consumer lender's loan portfolio grew 7 percent last year, twice-plus the growth rate of Minnesota's economy.
Deposits grew 9 percent at Merchants, which has total loans and other assets of $1.6 billion.
CEO Rodney Nelson, who is retiring to make way for 28-year-employee Greg Evans, credited the stellar performance to exceptional employees serving customers well with loans, mortgages and services.
Meanwhile, Minnesota's 317 banks earned $646 million during the first nine months of last year, compared to total-year earnings during the recession year of 2008 of $454 million. And that was from 431 banks, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., regulator of federally insured depositories.
Total Minnesota bank assets declined 8.5 percent from $78.1 billion to $71.4 billion, as banks lost some of the loan-market share to credit unions and nonbank financiers over the last eight years.
