A Des Moines institution with a familiar name
Bankers Trust Company in Des Moines, Iowa opened on June 1, 1917 under founder B. F. Kauffman. Its history recounts expansion through other Des Moines institutions and an early reopening after the nationwide bank holiday in 1933. The modern ownership story begins with John Ruan II, who acquired a substantial stake, joined the board in 1960 and became chairman in 1965 after taking sole ownership. The bank says it is now in the third generation of Ruan-family ownership. Its headquarters moved to the Ruan Center when that building opened in 1975, giving the bank a continuing physical connection to downtown Des Moines. [1]
The charter is the important identifier
Bankers Trust Company in Des Moines, Iowa is FDIC certificate 953, a state-chartered nonmember commercial bank supervised federally by the FDIC. The Iowa location and certificate distinguish this institution from other organizations that have used the Bankers Trust name. Neither a shared name nor a historical alias makes another bank’s results or enforcement record applicable to this charter. [2]
The FDIC’s September 2025 examination identifies BTC Financial Corporation as the bank’s sole owner. It also describes affiliated wealth and trust businesses under common ownership. The holding company, the insured bank and affiliated service providers must therefore be kept distinct when describing assets belonging to the institution versus client money being administered. [3]
Omaha adds full-service banking to an existing market
The bank’s 2025 annual report dates its first full-service Omaha branch to February 3, 2025. It reports nearly 550 new retail and private-banking accounts after opening and total market deposits of $134 million. In Phoenix, where it had operated for 18 years, the bank described further development of its North Scottsdale location. The report also records a leadership transition in Eastern Iowa. These are specific operating milestones behind the wider geographic footprint, rather than an assumption that every newly announced market immediately contributes substantial deposits or earnings. [4]
Commercial relationships extend into payments and wealth
The 2025 business-line report says commercial loan production reached $1.4 billion and net loan balances increased $202 million. Its treasury team offers integrated payables and receivables, tying the bank to customers’ collection and payment processes. The wealth division separately reported $18.7 billion under administration. Those administered assets belong to clients and cannot be added to the bank’s own balance sheet. The combination helps explain the franchise: a business owner can borrow, operate deposit accounts and obtain fiduciary services through related relationships, while each activity carries different responsibilities and risks. [5]
Household banking is part of the funding base
The retail offering includes checking, savings, certificates of deposit, retirement accounts, mortgages and other loans. It also provides private banking and retirement-investing access. Its disclosures distinguish nondeposit investments from bank deposits: investments can lose value and are not bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured. That separation is important when a customer sees multiple services under the same brand. A savings balance is a bank liability; an investment account is a different financial relationship. The menu establishes the available services, but it does not reveal how much each household account contributes to the bank’s funding cost or retention. [6]
Deposits outpace loan growth in the June comparison
At June 30, 2025, the bank held $7.543 billion of assets, $5.631 billion of deposits and $5.861 billion of net loans. Its noncurrent-loan ratio was 0.03%. These are the same bank’s comparable starting figures, not parent or affiliated wealth assets. [7]
At June 30, 2026, assets were $7.832 billion, deposits $6.717 billion and net loans $5.942 billion. The deposit increase exceeded the increase in net lending, changing the balance between those two items. Book equity was $743.172 million. The table is in millions, converted from FDIC thousands. Income and cover January–June; other dollar measures are period-end. [8]
are at least 90 days overdue or on nonaccrual status; the denominator is adjusted total loans. [9]
Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
| Bank-only measure | June 30, 2025 | June 30, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | $7,542.729m | $7,832.471m |
| Deposits | $5,631.261m | $6,716.992m |
| Net loans and leases | $5,861.215m | $5,942.195m |
| Book equity | $654.511m | $743.172m |
| Loan-loss allowance | $75.925m | $82.108m |
| January–June net income | $36.427m | $40.941m |
| January–June net charge-offs | $0.404m | $2.033m |
| Noncurrent loans / adjusted total loans | 0.03% | 0.31% |
A small problem-loan base can still move noticeably
The noncurrent-loan ratio reached 0.31%, while first-half net were $2.033 million. Real-estate-secured lending totaled $4.168 billion, including $523.189 million in construction and land-development loans. These figures make property performance relevant even when the overall reported problem-loan ratio remains low. They do not establish which borrowers will default or the value of collateral available after a default. [8]
Management’s annual report emphasizes automation and modernization, including an Enterprise Innovation Center established in 2025. For a relationship bank, that is an operating investment as well as a growth project: more customers and more transactions require reliable onboarding, servicing and controls. The report describes priorities and progress, rather than independently measuring every technology investment’s return. [10]
Supervisory history requires dates and the correct Iowa bank
The Federal Reserve’s public registry records an April 8, 1991 written agreement for Bankers Trust Company in Des Moines and its termination on November 23, 1993. The registry does not provide the underlying document, so it supports those dates and status without establishing detailed findings. It cannot be used to import unrelated cases involving the historical New York institution with the same name. [11]
The September 22, 2025 FDIC Community Reinvestment Act evaluation rated this bank Outstanding overall, with High Satisfactory lending and Outstanding investment and service tests. It assesses responsiveness to community credit needs, including lower-income borrowers and areas. It is not a safety-and-soundness judgment. That dated result, the expansion record and the bank-only figures together provide a more useful account than treating family ownership or a familiar name as a guarantee of outcomes. [3]
Sources
- Bankers Trust: History; checked October 6, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑
- FDIC institution directory, certificate 953; checked October 6, 2026Official sourceBack to text: ↑
- Bankers Trust, CRA Public File 2026; FDIC evaluation insideSource · PDFBack to text: ↑1↑2
- Bankers Trust, 2025 annual report: growth marketsFiling / reportBack to text: ↑
- Bankers Trust, 2025 Business Line ResultsSourceBack to text: ↑
- Bankers Trust, personal banking services; checked October 6, 2026SourceBack to text: ↑
- FDIC bank financials, June 30, 2025; certificate 953; dollar fields in thousandsOfficial sourceBack to text: ↑
- FDIC bank financials, June 30, 2026; certificate 953; dollar fields in thousandsOfficial sourceBack to text: ↑1↑2
- FDIC financial field definitions; checked October 6, 2026Official sourceBack to text: ↑
- Bankers Trust, 2025 annual report overviewFiling / reportBack to text: ↑
- Federal Reserve, enforcement action registry; checked October 6, 2026Official sourceBack to text: ↑