Sterling Savings Bank moved ahead of perennial leader Washington Trust Bank in bank deposits in Spokane County over the last year, according to an annual market share report released last month by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Executives from both institutions downplayed the significance of the position change, though, saying they don't gauge performance or base growth strategies heavily on where they rank in deposits against certain banks in particular markets. They also note that the financial landscape has changed dramatically in the several months since the FDIC gathered the data, which renders the figures less meaningful.

The report, which measures banks' deposits by county and metropolitan statistical area on June 30 of each year, showed that the 18 FDIC-insured institutions operating here had total local deposits of $7.1 billion on that date this year, up 6.7 percent from $6.7 billion in deposits spread among 17 institutions a year earlier. The only new institution to join the list was Everett-based Coastal Community Bank, which opened a branch in downtown Spokane last winter.

Of the 17 that were operating here in June 2007, 11 increased deposits over the following 12-month period.

Spokane-based Sterling climbed to a listed 24.4 percent market share, with $1.7 billion in deposits, in the latest FDIC figures, up from 20.9 percent, or $1.4 billion, on June 30, 2007. Meanwhile, Washington Trust, also based in Spokane, had a 22.7 percent market share, with $1.6 billion in deposits, which was down from a 25.3 percent market share, and deposits of $1.7 billion, a year earlier.

Washington Trust long has been the leader here in bank deposits and 10 years ago had a 27.3 percent deposit market share, while Sterling was far back in fifth place with just a 7.2 percent piece of the market. Sterling, though, has been increasing its market share here steadily over the last six years, and jumped into second place three years ago, putting it in a position to begin challenging WTB for the deposit share lead, the data show.

Heidi Stanley, vice chairwoman and CEO of Sterling, which operates in five states, says the bank had 4 percent deposit growth systemwide over the past year, which was good to see.

"We do pay attention to market share information because there's lots of opportunity to increase market share in all of the markets we operate in," she says. However, she adds, "It's never been our goal to take one financial institution and say, 'I want to have more market share than that institution.' We're more global thinking than that."

Similarly, Peter Stanton, chairman and CEO of Washington Trust, says, "My general feeling is growth for growth's sake isn't really our M.O. and never has been." The bank focuses instead, he says, on return on assets and return on equity, which are key performance indicators for banks.

"Banks tend to have goals for raising deposits," Stanton adds, but he says, "It doesn't make sense to raise more than that if you don't need them."

Washington Mutual Bank, now owned by JP Morgan Chase & Co. and soon to be operating under the Chase name, remained in third place in the latest FDIC figures for Spokane County, though its market share fell to 10.5 percent from 11.6 percent. The latest report's numbers, of course, don't reflect the Spokane-area portion of a mammoth reported $16.7 billion run on WaMu deposits that occurred in the 10 days before the thrift was seized by federal regulators in late September and then sold to JPMorgan. The figures obviously also don't reflect the deposit gains or losses that other banks have experienced as a result of WaMu's collapse and other sweeping financial upheaval over the last several months.

Because of a "flight to quality" consumer reaction, though, Stanton says, "I think we've been a net beneficiary of the financial crisis, and I suspect other local banks have, too."

Trailing Sterling, Washington Trust, and Washington Mutual in the fourth, fifth, and sixth place positions in the latest deposit market share report for the Spokane market were Bank of America, at 8.7 percent; U.S. Bank, 7.4 percent; and Banner Bank, 6.4 percent. All of those banks retained the same rankings as a year ago, but suffered slight declines in market share.

AmericanWest Bank, despite numerous problems of its own, moved past Wells Fargo Bank into seventh place, boosting its deposit market share to 6.2 percent from 4.4 percent a year ago, even though Wells Fargo increased its market share slightly as well, to just under 5 percent, the data show.

Inland Northwest Bank remained in the ninth spot, despite increasing its market share by nearly half a percentage point, and two-year-old RiverBank leapfrogged over Bank of Fairfield and State Bank Northwest to move into 10th place, with a 1.54 percent market share, up from 1.02 percent a year earlier.

Rounding out the institutions serving the Spokane metropolitan area, in order of deposit market share, were Wheatland Bank, Panhandle State Bank, Mountain West Bank, and Coastal Community Bank.