Best Banks in the West for 2024

If you live in the West, there are many outstanding regional banks for you to choose from. Regional banks can combine the best features of small community banks and large multinational institutions.

They’re well-resourced enough to offer a wide array of products, extended customer service hours, and convenient locations, but small enough to have a local community focus and offer a better customer experience.

5 Best Banks in the West

Here are our picks for the best banks in the West:

1. Umpqua Bank: Best for High-Net-Worth Customers
2. First Interstate Bank: Best for Checking Account-Only Customers
3. Glacier Bank: Best Range of Products
4. Washington Federal Bank: Best Family Products
5. Cathay Bank: Best Pan-Asian Banking

1. Umpqua Bank

Best for: High-net-worth individuals who can meet the balance requirements to get the top-tier interest rates on MMAs

📍State Availability: Oregon, Washington, California, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona

Umpqua Bank serves customers at over 300 branches throughout the Western region. Founded in Oregon in 1953, Umpqua is a community-centric bank that provides full-service solutions for personal, small business, and commercial banking.

The bank has three (3) flexible checking account options. All are interest-bearing, provide complimentary cashier’s checks, charge no international processing fees, and offer bonus CD rates. There’s also an option to access a dedicated go-to banker.

Additionally, Umpqua offers private banking. It’s an exclusive service with premier benefits like investment reviews, wealth management, tax assistance, personal finance coaching, and estate planning. Private banking is also available to business customers for assistance with administration, success planning, liquidity management, and merger and acquisition advisors.

Pros

• Broad regional footprint with branches throughout the contiguous Western states
• Excellent transparency for APY (annual percentage yield) rates
• Ability to meet all of your banking and financial planning needs
• Solid money market account (MMA) rates — up to 4.70%
• Competitive CDs with APYs at 5.05%

Cons

• Savings and checking deposit account rates are a meager 0.01%

2. First Interstate Bank

Best for: Consumers who want a solid checking account to manage their paycheck

📍State Availability: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming

Formerly known as Great Western Bank, First Interest State Bank is a full-service bank with over 300 locations throughout the Pacific Northwest and Midwest. Nationwide, customers can access the Allpoint ATM network for free debit card withdrawals.

It offers four (4) checking accounts, including interest-bearing options. Some of their better checking account perks — for top-tier accounts — include bonus CD interest rates, free cashier’s checks, and consumer loan discounts.

Pros

• Wide range of account options
• Access to 55,000+ fee-free ATMs through the Allpoint network
• Highly-rate mobile app (4.5-star average rating from Apple and Google Play stores)

Cons

• More lenient overdraft policy: Grace amount of $50 before any fees are assessed, $10 per NSF
• Low interest rates: Tiered interest rates for deposit accounts range from 0.05% to 0.25%

3. Glacier Bank

Best for: Consumers who want a community-oriented back with excellent digital integrations.

📍State Availability: Montana, Idaho, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada

Glacier Bank is a regional financial institution that provides commercial and personal banking services in the Western region of the U.S. It serves over 140 communities through its 220+ branch locations.

Customers appreciate the bank’s local community feel, convenient locations, and solid mobile banking and online banking experience.

The bank has four (4) different checking accounts, including some that are interest-bearing, and three (3) accounts with no monthly fees and no minimum balance requirements. Additionally, there’s no minimum deposit requirement for any account.

Glacier offers a range of other products and services like credit cards, credit builder loans, community impact loans, and retirement planning.

Pros

• Community-focused bank
• Online banking is a simple, streamlined, enjoyable experience
• Wide range of products and services
• Highly-rated mobile app (4.9 stars in Apple and 4.5 stars in Google Play)
• Integrates with virtual wallets for Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay, or Garmin Pay

Cons

• Bafflingly bad reviews for older versions of the app (pre-February 2024) — a 2.7-star rating in Google Play. Numerous complaints related to lack of app features and bugs. The new app release has much higher reviews, but fewer than 2K total downloads.
• High overdraft fees: $30 per item and a $5 continuous overdraft fee. *No daily cap (maximum) on how many NSF fees the bank will charge.
• No APY rates are published by the bank except for certificates of deposit.

*No daily cap for NSF fees is referenced in the bank’s schedule of fees.

4. Washington Federal Bank

Best for: Apple users who want a family-focused bank with many savings products for youth.

📍State Availability: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas

Washington Federal Bank, commonly referred to as WaFd, is a regional bank that operates in the Pacific Northwest, Texas, and Rocky Mountain states. Headquartered in Seattle, WaFd is Washington’s largest state-based bank. It provides full-service business and personal banking.

WaFd has been in continual operation for over 100 years and has over 200 locations in the Western region. The bank manages over $22 billion in total assets for over 450,000 customer accounts.

The bank has three (3) consumer checking accounts, with one (1) interest-bearing option. All accounts require an initial $25 deposit and come with a contactless debit card, free digital banking, and free overdraft protection with your WaFd savings or money market account used as a backup.

The bank has an exceptional range of products to teach kids and teens about banking and financial literacy, including youth CDs, youth money market accounts, and youth deposit savings with a 1.00% APY — not a high-yield savings account rate but still more than double the national average.

Additionally, WaFd’s website is exceptionally user-friendly. As an example, there are comparison charts for all of their account options and you can easily select “hide similar features” to get a quick overview of just the unique features.

Pros

• Excellent online user experience
• Community commitment; given out nonprofit grants for over 100 years
• Free overdraft protection
• Outstanding range of products for adult and youth consumers

Cons

• Low savings and money market account APYs
• 9-star rating for the Android app — a stark contrast to the 4.8-star rating in Apple. Android users complain of being unable to log in and/or the app crashing

5. Cathay Bank

Best for: Consumers with strong ties to China, Taiwan, or Hong Kong for the bank’s international presence and multi-lingual support

📍State Availability: California, Washington, Nevada, New York, Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey

Cathay Bank opened its first branch in California in 1962 to serve the local Chinese-American community. Over the decades, the bank has grown rapidly. Managing over $22 billion in total assets, Cathay Bank is the fourth-largest, state-based bank in California and 85th largest in the nation.

It offers a full suite of personal banking solutions, commercial banking, and wealth management. Cathay has operations worldwide, in nine (9) U.S. states, Hong Kong (since 1985), Taipei (since 2005), and mainland China (since 2002).

Within the U.S., Cathay Bank locations are heavily concentrated in areas with a large Asian-American population. Customers can receive banking services in English, Chinese, or Spanish.

The bank has a wide range of attractive financial products, among them:

• Five (5) checking accounts that are totally free or no-fee with a qualifying direct deposit each statement cycle or for meeting minimum account balance requirements, including special options for college students
• Two (2) money market account(s)
• Flexible certificate of deposit (CD) terms ranging from seven (7) days to five (5) years

Pros

• Regional locations in California, Washington, and Nevada and around the globe
• Outstanding range of consumer products
• Multilingual customer service in English, Chinese, and Spanish
• Free ATM access to the Pulse Select/MoneyPass network of over 40,000 ATMs

Cons

• The bank’s mobile app ratings are so-so (3.9 stars in Google Play and 4.3 stars in Apple)
• No locations in Oregon, Idaho, or 39 other U.S. states
• Low interest rates for deposit accounts and CDs

How to Choose a Bank in Your Region

When choosing the best regional bank, here are some of the features that you should consider:

• Locations: Regional banks by definition are only in select regional areas, so make sure that there is a branch and/or ATM near you — or that you are comfortable doing all of your banking digitally.
• Mobile app: An easy-to-navigate app is a must if you’re considering a regional bank. With fewer branch locations, the ability to complete banking transactions from your phone is all the more important. Make sure the bank has an app for your device type and then read through the ratings and reviews.
• ATM network: If you regularly withdraw cash, make sure that your bank has in-network ATMs in areas where you live, or that it will reimburse out-of-network fees.
• Zelle: If you use cash-free ways to pay friends and family, look for a bank that offers integration with Zelle or other similar apps. Increasingly, Zelle is becoming the most popular virtual wallet option for banks and credit unions.
• Interest rates: APY rates can vary greatly from one bank to the next, or even from product to product within the same financial institution. Make sure to compare all relevant product rates.
• FDIC insurance: Ensure that the bank you’re considering is a member FDIC institution so that your deposits, up to $250K per account, are safe. For state and federal credit unions, make sure they are NCUA-insured — the FDIC equivalent for credit union account balances up to $250K.

Compare the Best Banks in the West

*Fees can be waived
**For new credit card signups
^$5 monthly service fee cannot be waived for Simple Checking
^^$6 monthly service fee for Green Checking cannot be waived
~Mortgage discounts for checking account holders

Best Banks in the West: Runner-Ups

Here are some other Western-based banks we like, although they didn’t quite make the cut:

• CIT Bank (a division of Citizens Bank): Headquartered in Pasadena, Calif., CIT Bank is a digital bank. It has flexible account options, solid APYs for CDs and deposit accounts, and commonly offers new customer promotions like a cash bonus for opening a new checking account.
• Axos Bank: A primarily online-only bank, Axos is headquartered out of San Diego. It has seven (7) locations, including three (3) in California and locations in Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Columbus, Ohio. Axos offers competitive rates for checking and saving accounts, ATM fee reimbursements, and several reward checking account
• PNC Bank: Over 2,500 locations nationwide, including branches in California and Arizona. PNC has competitive rates for CDs and deposit accounts and regular new-customer bonuses like $400 free for opening a select checking and savings account Some PNC products, promotions, and/or interest rates are only available in select zip codes though.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most common FAQs that readers have about the best regional banks and banking in general out West.

What Bank Has the Most Branches in the Western United States?

Overall Chase Bank has the most locations throughout the United States but not necessarily in each state in the region. By total of branches, here are the most popular banks in each Western state:

• Arizona: Chase Bank
• California: Bank of America
• Idaho: Wells Fargo
• Nevada: Wells Fargo
• Oregon: U.S. Bank
• Washington: Bank of America
• Utah: Zions Bank

What Are the Best Banks and Credit Unions for Other Parts of the United States?

The term “best” is highly subjective based on your personal finances and banking needs, but here are some other solid options in other parts of the U.S.

• Southeast: Cadence (BancorpSouth)
• Midwest: Fifth Third Bank
• Northeast: Capital One

Our Methodology

The BankBonus team has analyzed hundreds of banks and financial institutions to provide our readers with a thoroughly informed and accurate review.

We evaluated digital financial platforms, online banks, credit unions, regional banks, and national banks with a strong presence throughout the New England and Middle Atlantic regions.

Our assessment of the best regional banks took into account these key considerations:

• Product lineup: We review the types of accounts, loans, and services offered by each bank, as well as the number of account options.
• Fees and pricing: We also consider each bank’s service fees, including monthly maintenance fees, NSF or overdraft fees, and other service charges.
• Account features: To compare financial institutions, we take a close look at the banking features, limits, and capabilities each one has to offer.
• Interest: Along with these features, we examined whether or not the banks offered any interest-bearing accounts. We compared any rates of interest to industry averages.
• Brand reputation: The bank accounts we recommend have been scrupulously vetted to ensure they are legitimate, secure, and backed by FDIC insurance. We also considered D. Power’s U.S. Retail Banking Satisfaction Study and Better Business Bureau (BBB) scores, along with other indicators of customer satisfaction (Trustpilot and app store reviews).
• User experience: Additionally, we evaluate the ease of navigation and the availability of resources on each bank’s website, and factor in the reviews of the bank’s mobile app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
• Branch and ATM access: To assess convenience, we also examine each bank’s branch and ATM availability and consider ATM fees and any ATM reimbursement policies.
• Customer service: In our review process, we also explore available customer service channels, hours of availability, and third-party review forums like TrustPilot and Deposit Accounts.