Kentucky Banks Weathering Financial Storm Well

From Kentucky Public Radio's Tony McVeighKentucky banks appear to doing a pretty good job of weathering the financial meltdown that led to one of the worse recessions in U-S history.A first quarter profitability survey conducted by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC, ranks Kentucky banks eighth in the nation. Kentucky Financial Institutions Commissioner Charles Vice says Kentucky banks have continued to loan money during the financial crisis.“From 2006 to 2007, both total loans and total assets increased," says Vice. "From 2007 to 2008, again, total loans and total assets increased for state-chartered banks in Kentucky.”Vice says Kentucky has not had a bank failure since 1981.The only states with banks that outperformed Kentucky banks in the profitability survey were North Dakota, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Oklahoma, West Virginia and New York.