Benchmark Bankshares, Inc. is pleased to announce that Benchmark Community Bank has been named to the list of Top-Performing Community Banks in the United States for the 20th consecutive year. The category is for public banks with under $2 billion in assets during calendar year 2025. Benchmark Bankshares, Inc. is the holding company for Benchmark Community Bank, headquartered in Kenbridge, VA.
"We are excited to once again make this prestigious list of banks," said Neil Burke, President/CEO of Benchmark Community Bank. "High growth and increasing profitability often work against one another; however, we have been able to balance that equation over the past few years.
"We are fortunate that our earnings have allowed us to increase our dividend, maintain a robust stock repurchase plan, and support our growth initiatives," he continued. "Beyond the metrics, I am proud of our outstanding team whose dedication to community banking is reflected in our results for 2025."
According to the American Banker story by Maria Volkova, "community banks overcame a key challenge in 2025 by growing deposits, a task that had proved difficult in previous years. Across the entire universe of banks, deposits increased 4%. What separated the top-performing banks was their ability to maintain low overhead while growing efficiently."
First named to the Top 200 list in 1998 and then consecutively since 2007, Benchmark ranked #27 in the nation and #1 among Virginia-headquartered banks in its category. The Top 200 Community Banks list is published annually by American Banker magazine, the recognized leader in financial industry publications. The Top 200 list is based on a three-year average of a bank’s return on average equity for 2023-2025.
Benchmark Community Bank is the sole subsidiary of Benchmark Bankshares, Inc., which trades under the symbol BMBN on the OTC Pink marketplace. Founded in 1971, the bank has 18 branches located throughout Southside Virginia and northern North Carolina.
