Washington Trust Bank easily has retained its customary position as the leader in bank deposits in Spokane County, says an annual market share report released earlier this month by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The Spokane-based institution's $1.85 billion in local deposits as of June 30 equated to a 27.53 percent market share. That was down slightly from 27.85 percent and 29.19 percent in 2011 and 2010, respectively, but still well ahead of second-place U.S. Bank, which was listed at a 12.1 percent market share with about $741 million in deposits.

That big Minneapolis, Minn.-based institution, nevertheless, showed the most noteworthy upward movement of any bank here, leaping over Sterling Bank and Bank of America into second place. A year ago, it had a 10.4 percent market share and $663 million in local deposits, the data showed.

Bank of America was in third place in the latest report, with $732 million in local deposits and a 12 percent local market share, down about $64 million and half a point from a 12.5 percent market share last year.

Washington Trust Bank executives couldn't be reached for comment.

However, Linda Elkin, Spokane-based region president for U.S. Bank, was enthused by that institution's gains here.

"That was organic growth, which was good to see," Elkin says, adding, "I anticipated that there would be some improvement. I was pleasantly surprised that we ended up in second place."

She referred to it, though, as "a snapshot in time," and says she emphasized in a meeting with her management team the need to hold onto and strengthen the bank's deposit market share position here, partly by "reinforcing our community engagement."

Spokane-based Sterling, in fourth place this year with $716 million in local deposits and an 11.7 percent market share, had moved ahead of Washington Trust in the 2008 FDIC deposit market share report and held that top spot again the following year. However, it was forced to make sweeping changes to dig out from a deep financial hole, causing its market share to plummet. Since then, Washington Trust has remained in first place easily.

Washington Trust earlier this year reported net income of about $16.2 million for last year, up substantially from earnings of $9.1 million in 2010 and $3 million in 2009. Its total assets at the end of last year stood at $4.2 billion, up from just over $4 billion a year earlier.

The FDIC report, which measures banks' deposits by county and metropolitan statistical area on June 30 of each year, showed that 18 FDIC-insured institutions operating here had total local deposits of $6.11 billion on that date this year, down 4 percent from $6.36 billion in deposits spread among the same number of institutions a year earlier. Those 18 institutions were operating a total of 124 branches as of June 30, down slightly from 126 last year.

Just six of the 16 institutions that were on the list both this year and last showed increases in deposits over the prior year. None, though, increased their market share dramatically, and none of the other rankings changed.

Wells Fargo Bank was in the fifth spot, with an 8.3 percent market share, followed in the sixth through 10th spots by JPMorgan Chase Bank, at 7.9 percent; Banner Bank, 7.1 percent; Inland Northwest Bank, 4.4 percent; RiverBank, 1.9 percent; and AmericanWest Bank, 1.8 percent.

Rounding out the institutions serving the Spokane metropolitan area were the Bank of Fairfield, State Bank Northwest, Wheatland Bank, Panhandle State Bank, Columbia State Bank, Glacier Bank, Armed Forces Bank, and Davidson Trust Co. Davidson was listed as having an office here, but no local deposits.

Except for RiverBank, which is a boutique financial services provider, all of the FDIC-insured institutions operating here have deposits outside of the Spokane metropolitan area, the list shows, and in some cases those deposits dwarf what they manage here. That's particularly true, of course, for the big institutions such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bank, all of which have overall deposits in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Sterling continued to top the list of banks based in the Inland Northwest in that category, with deposits of a little over $6 billion outside of the Spokane market, up sharply from $5.7 billion a year ago. It was followed by Glacier Bank, at just under $5 billion; Columbia State Bank, $3.9 billion; Banner Bank, $2.9 billion; and Washington Trust, $1.9 billion.

Next in order were AmericanWest Bank, at $1.7 billion; Armed Forces Bank, $1.3 billion; Panhandle State Bank, $700 million; Wheatland Bank, $205 million; Inland Northwest Bank, $70 million; State Bank Northwest, $17 million; Bank of Fairfield, $11 million; and Davidson Trust Co., $500,000.