Louisville Banks

[Off Topic]

I'm hearing the same rumors about Fifth Third, but again, it certainly possible they are baseless. As the King said, you're ultimately OK if you have less than $100,000 in an account (or $250,000 if it's an IRA account, I think) but there will be some delay and inconvenience. Especially if you live from paycheck to paycheck.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these are just rumors.

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by kingcopper

National City will fail and possibly soon. It is unfortunate for many reasons most of all; it's the largest financial institution in Louisville. They would collapse quickly with an IndyMac style deposit run. Either way, don't have more than 100K in any one account and you'll be fine!

where are you hearing these rumors?

[kingcopper]

Unfortunately National City made their bed with unsecured equity lines on properties in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Florida. Having a second on a property that is underwater is failure in this scheme. In order to secure precious time, the bank diluted their shares and then guaranteed the last investor; a "sovereign wealth fund", by having to match any future dilutions by repaying the funds' investors. This means that they can't raise additional funds without committing fraud and they are NOT to big to fail like Chase or BOA. National City will most likely end up failing in similar form to Indymac; the difference being Indymac screwed the pooch on Alt-A jumbo loans and construction loans which were secured as firsts on properties that ended up underwater. In order to see how a bank is doing, I suggest looking at how much they'll pay you. If a bank is paying 5% on C.D.s, there is a problem. Stock Yards is paying like one half a percent and are "A" rated. Fifth Third, KeyCorp, and National City are three of the largest banks in this country and are all Ohio based; All have big time liabilities and All three will have to merge to possibly survive. Considering our fed's predispositon to bailing out Wallstreet, I believe that Chase will remain as the only Ohio entity out of the Big4 Ohio. I also believe that BOA will remain as they are too big to fail and Wachovia will fall in North Carolina. Suntrust in Georgia and Regions in Alabama will survive. On the westcoast, Citibank is too large to fail. Washington Mutual is dead and Wells Fargo is doing great; considering.

[louisville_sky]

I've been with National City for about a year and a half now, and I've had no problems with them. I've called Customer Service twice, and both experiences were very pleasant. They offer free online bill-pay, free checking, and they supposedly have zero ATM fees at every ATM in the city. And (probably what I like the most) is you can find a bank branch and/or an ATM at nearly every street corner (but, then again, you can with multiple banks here).

And about rumors that the bank will fail... of course you're going to hear rumors of every other bank failing right after IndyMac failed (a bank I'd never even heard of, by the way). Not to say some of it isn't true, but just read up on it yourself rather than taking everyone else's word for it.

[tomocox]

Don't forget the cost of accessing your bank can offset the service charges a bank might apply. Remember banks are much like cell phone carriers, what one gives the other will take.

As a small business owner, I absolutely recommend Stock Yards Bank. I bank with the Prospect office and visit the Springhurst, St. Matthews, and Blankenbaker offices on periodic occasion. Simply great bank. You won't go wrong with Republic or River City either. I used to bank with National City, but felt like I was dealing with Cleveland rather than local people.

If you happen to live in the 40245 area of Louisville or most anywhere in Oldham County, The Bank - Oldham County is also one of my depositories because the bank owners live and work here and hire very good people.