That Sleepy Bank on the Corner? It's Got Wheels.: What a difference two years can make.

Community banks make up one-third of America's fastest-growing small companies. It's the highest concentration of companies of any industry and far exceeds the number of banks that made up this group of fast movers in the past two years. Low interest rates, spurring mortgages and refinancings, as well as mutual-to-stock conversions, seem to be the prime cause for the vanguard of local banks making up the country's fleet-of-foot.

Thirty-four community banks made Fortune's list of 100 fastest-growing small companies this year, versus 14 in 2002 and three in 2001, the lis