This year the U.S. banking industry continued its slow recovery from its nadir in 2010, as banks cleaned up their balance sheets and reduced nonperforming loans and assets. There were only 24 bank failures in 2013, versus 51 last year. Failures peaked at 157 in 2010. The FDIC’s “Problem List” of banks shrank to 515 from 694 a year ago (it was 888 in March 2011).

Yet there is still a broad disparity between the best and worst banks. In order to gauge the financial health of the 100 largest U.S. banks and thrifts, Forbes turned to Charlottesville, Va.-based financial data provider SNL Financial for information on asset quality, capital adequacy and profitability. The data is based on regulatory filings through the third quarter of 2013. SNL provides the data, but the rankings are done by Forbes (click here for a more detailed methodology and a complete ranking of the 100 largest banks).

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