Return on assets is Matt Koppenheffer's favorite metric for evaluating banks. The top three in this regard are US Bancorp at 1.6%, Wells Fargo at 1.5% and M&T at 1.4%. Average for all banks: 1%. The bottom two banks were Citigroup at 0.5% and Bank of America at 0.3%. It's hard to say what's going to happen with Citi and Bank of America since they are still working through their various business problems. On the other hand, the top three banks are great banks with great management teams. They got through the last recession relatively unscathed and are in a position to continue growing.