Most local banks do well in 2001’s first half

A real trick with banks is figuring out which ones are doing well. Numbers don’t lie, but they have a tendency to tell fibs, especially when you start comparing apples and oranges.

If you’re the average guy walking down the street, chances are that a bank is just a place to keep your money that’s safer than under the family mattress. Checking out a bank’s assets is a down-and-dirty way of making sure that a bank isn’t about to go under on you, but it can be deceptive.

Bill Farr, president of Centennial Bank of the West, points out that a bank’s ratios, such as its return on assets and return on equity, can tell you a lot about a bank’s financial health and whether it’s expanding.

Ratios will tell you if a bank, for example, has a lot of money invested in bricks and mortar or drive-ups.

Ratios aside, figures compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. indicate the local bank that’s going great guns is the Bank of Colorado in Fort Lupton. The bank has its state charter in Fort Lupton but has regional branches in Fort Collins, Fort Lupton, Estes Park and Windsor.

Bank of Colorado’s 22 branches across the state combined to generate more than $4.6 million in net income over the first six months of 2001.

Bank of Colorado spokeswoman Linda Keir said the bank’s 22 branches operate under multiple charters. The charters are one of the things that skew the numbers, she said, noting that the bank’s real asset figure is somewhere around $832 million, not what shows up in the FDIC report.

The charter — which denotes state permission to operate in an area — is important because not only does it determine under what name or names a bank will do business, but also because — like most states — Colorado once had wildly differing charter laws.

Unlike other states, Colorado was the last one to actually change those laws. Until 1992, it was extremely difficult to operate a branch in the state.

The First National Bank of Fort Collins is second on the list and doing well, too, with more than $4.4 million in net income in the first half of 2001. Mark Driscoll, president, said the bank is owned by a holding company in Omaha and is one of those all-around operations that does very well.

The bank is one of the largest in the state and is doing even better than it did last year, also a banner year. It sticks close to the Fort Collins-Loveland area and concentrates on Larimer County to make its money.

Home State Bank in Loveland ranked fifth for profitablilty in Northern Colorado and has been in existence for 50 years. It started in Loveland and now has three branches.

Spokesman Mark Bower said the bank opened its first branch in Fort Collins in 1998 and will open its next branch in October on Timberline Road across from Fort Collins High School.”

Union Colony is a bank in Greeley that shows how complicated the rules can get. Seventh on the FDIC list, Union Colony is affiliated with First National in Fort Collins.

Spokeswoman Mary Audette said Union Colony’s success has been based on residential development that has been “going gangbusters for us in Greeley. It seems everyone wants to live here. Even with the economy we think it’s not going to slow down for us.”

The local bank near the bottom of the 190-bank FDIC list is Cache Bank and Trust, also in Greeley. Year to date, the bank has lost $47,000, according to the FDIC report. Cache Bank CEO Byron Bateman could not be reached in time for comment.

on Facebook on LinkedIn