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The Best Regional Banks in the East North Central States

January 21, 2022

4 min Read

Written by Andrew Lisa

Edited by Susan Kim

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The East North Central part of the United States encompasses the Midwest’s Great Lakes region and is home to the states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. It stands out as one of the rare sections of the country where not a single top 10 best bank or credit union is a local institution exclusive to the region. Those that did make the list range from regional names with fewer than three dozen branches to some of the biggest banks in the world.

In the East North Central region of America, 10 banks and credit unions stand out above the rest. To identify them, GOBankingRates examined factors like each bank’s service and product lines, which include credit cards, investment services, mortgage and vehicle loans and insurance.

The most important elements, however, were the number of branch locations, each bank’s checking fees and their current APY for both savings and 12-month CDs. Those four primary factors are listed in the rankings below. The list also factored in Apple and Android reviews for each bank’s app and whether or not they offer 24-hour customer service and human live chat.

Read on to discover the top 10 banks and credit unions in the East North Central region of America.

JP Morgan Chase

Branch locations: 4,960
Checking fee: $12
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.02%

Navy Federal Credit Union

Branch locations: 298
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.25%
12-month CD APY: 0.55%

Bank of America

Branch locations: 4,215
Checking fee: $12
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.03%

Get Going: 6 Steps You Should Take To Increase Your Financial Confidence

Wells Fargo

Branch locations: 5,024
Checking fee: $10
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.01%

American Airlines Credit Union

Branch locations: 38
Checking fee: $4.75
Savings APY: 0.40%
12-month CD APY: 0.50%

KeyBank

Branch locations: 1,046
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.05%

Wings Financial

Branch locations: 31
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.15%
12-month CD APY: 0.45%

Read more about this financial institution in our full review about it.

Fifth Third Bank

Branch locations: 1,110
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.01%

U.S. Bank

Branch locations: 2,319
Checking fee: $6.95
Savings APY: 0.01%
12-month CD APY: 0.05%

Citizens Equity First

Branch locations: 33
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.05%
12-month CD APY: 0.25%

More From GOBankingRates

Methodology: To discover the Top 100 Best Banks, GOBankingRates looked at all institutions with available published data (National, Regional, Local, and Online) from the 2021 Best Banks categories as well as all Credit Unions with over $1 billion in total assets and accessible to a wide audience. GOBankingRates looked at the following factors: (1) total assets as sourced from the FDIC and NCUA; (2) number of branch locations as sourced from the FDIC and NCUA; (3) checking account annual fee; (4) savings account APY rate; (5) 12-month CD APY rate; (6) customer service products offered (24/7 customer service and live chat with a human); (7) Bauer rating (out of 5 stars); (8) products/services offered (auto loans, mortgage loans, credit cards, investment services, and insurance); and (9) the average mobile app rating between the android and apple stores. All factors were then scored and combined, with the lowest score being best. Factors (1) and (4) were weighted 1.5 times in final scoring, factor (2) was weighted 2 times, factor (6) was weighted 0.5 times, and factor (8) was weighted 2.5 times. For all Savings and Checking Account data only the basic accounts/products offered at each institution was analyzed. All data is up to date as of 12/8/21, rates and fees subject to change.

Editorial Note: This content is not provided by any entity covered in this article. Any opinions, analyses, reviews, ratings or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author alone and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any entity named in this article.