As the stock market continues to fall and some banks have failed nationally, how secure are local institutions?

With one exception, financial institutions with offices in Crawford County receiving good marks from two different bank rating services.

National City Corp. of Cleveland ranked lowest among nine area financial institutions on Bankrate.com with only two out of a possible five stars while Bauer Financial gave National City three out of a possible five stars.

All the other financial institutions in the county rated three stars or more on both rating services.

Kelly Wagner-Amen, a National City spokeswoman, said National City remains a strong, stable and well-capitalized institution and will weather current crisis in the market.

However, National City was forced to arrange a $7 billion capital infusion in April and has shifted away from risky mortgage lending since late last year. It reported a $1.76 billion loss for the second quarter of this year.

In the past 52 weeks its stock price has ranged from a high of $25.93 to a recent low of $1.25.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Cleveland-based bank was in sale talks. Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said potential suitors for National City were PNC Financial of Pittsburgh and Bank of Nova Scotia based in Toronto, Canada. National City officials have declined comment.

Nonetheless, Wagner-Amen stressed that National City is stable and well-capitalized.

“We have $7 billion in excess of what is considered the level to be considered well-capitalized by federal regulators,” she said. “We have ample liquidity and a strong, stable deposit base.”

Wagner-Amen said the rating services use financial data provided by banks in their regulatory filings, but the ratings can be a lagging indicator because the data they use may be weeks or months old.

“The ratings don’t always reflect core fundamentals,” Wagner-Amen said.

Some ratings services also don’t take into account a bank’s business mix or management, she said.

Wagner-Amen said customers of National City and other banks should also remember there is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

It is government insurance on bank accounts, Wagner-Amen said. The insurance limit was raised on accounts from $100,000 to $250,000 under the recently passed $700 billion financial bailout package.