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The Best Regional Banks Throughout the East South Central States

January 21, 2022

4 min Read

Written by Andrew Lisa

Edited by Zoey Quach

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Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky make up the East South Central region of the United States, and its top 10 banks and credit unions are a combination of mid-sized regional institutions and gigantic corporate heavyweights with global name recognition. Although there are no truly tiny banks, some have only a few dozen branches — the smallest of the bunch maintains fewer than 30 branches across the region.

To pick out the 10 best banks and credit unions in the East South Central states, GOBankingRates examined several key factors about the region’s financial institutions, placing the greatest importance on four crucial elements: checking fees, the number of branch locations, and the APY on both savings accounts and 12-month CDs.

Those points are cited in the list below, but the rankings also considered each bank’s total assets as well as the availability — or lack thereof — of human live chat and 24/7 customer service. Further, the study considered what other products and services each bank and credit union offer, including home and auto loans, credit cards, insurance and investment services. Reviews in the Apple and Android stores also factored in.

Read on to learn about the 10 best banks and credit unions in the East South Central region of the U.S.

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%

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%

Eastman

Branch locations: 28
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.30%
12-month CD APY: 0.65%

Delta Community

Branch locations: 30
Checking fee: $0
Savings APY: 0.08%
12-month CD APY: 0.55%

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%

Redstone

Branch locations: 73
Checking fee: $3
Savings APY: 0.10%
12-month CD APY: 0.16%

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.