NU Online News Service, Dec. 17, 11:11 a.m. EST

Wells Fargo, BB&T, and BancorpSouth were cited for exceptional performance by Who's Who in Bank Insurance (WWBI), an annual study published by the Bank Insurance Market Research Group.

Also named to WWBI's "honor roll" for top bank insurance performance sustained over a five-year period, were Eastern Bank Corporation, First Niagara Financial Group, M&T Bank Corporation, First Financial Holdings, Johnson Financial Group, Bremer Financial Corp., Tompkins Financial Corporation, S&T Bancorp, Inc., and 1st Source Corporation.

These bank programs posted insurance brokerage revenue growth every year between fiscal 2004 and 2008 with at least 40 percent revenue growth over the entire five-year period.

Each remained among the top 100 bank insurers in WWBI's annual survey during the five-year period. (WWBI has been published annually since 2005.)

"Despite a soft insurance market through much of the period, and a severe recession over the past two years, these 12 programs were able to sustain annual insurance growth," said Andrew Singer, WWBI editor in a statement. "At a time when other banks headed for the exits, these institutions maintained their insurance commitment."

Wells Fargo (ranked first in WWBI's 2009 edition), BB&T (ranked third), and BancorpSouth (ranked seventh) " They have maintained growth through a steady diet of insurance agency acquisition," said Mr. Singer, "but others on the list, such as Johnson Financial (ranked 25th), Bremer Financial (ranked 31st), and Tompkins Financial (ranked 40th) have done so mostly through organic growth."

Inclusion among the top 100 banks in insurance in the present edition required $3.68 million in annual insurance brokerage revenues, little changed from the $3.71 million in the previous edition.

In WWBI's 2009 survey of the top 100 banks, the greatest number (29 percent of respondents) named Travelers as their leading insurance carrier. Cincinnati Insurance was second. Commercial property and casualty was again the leading product line (76 percent of respondents), followed by personal lines and employee benefits.

The study is distributed each year by the Bank Insurance & Securities Association. It is sponsored by Prudential, Symetra and INVEST Financial.

Copies of the report are available at www.singerpubs.com.

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