Domina Law Group seldom devotes any of its website space to any topic other than legal topics of interest to its lawyers and visitors. But, this article is an exception. It is about a special Nebraska bank that ranks as one of the 359 safest banks in America, according to msn.money. (Read the Article Here)
The article describes risks posed by America’s banks – 7,300 of them, and it identifies the 359 banks in the country that achieved a perfect “Texas ratio” score of 0.0. You may not be surprised that Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, or other commonly known banks did not make the grade.
One of the banks that did, however, get a perfect score is Farmers State Bank of Carroll, in Wayne County, Nebraska.
David Domina has been a member of the FSB board of directors, and the bank’s lawyer, since 1983.
The Texas ratio uses a formula described as follows:
non-performing loans + real estate owned = Texas ratio
If a bank has no non-performing loans and owns no real estate its Texas ratio is 0.0. The Texas ratio is used by dividing non-performing assets and real estate owned by tangible common equity and loan loss reserves. Tangible common equity is equity capital less goodwill and intangibles.
The ratio is reportedly used by the FDIC. Quarterly, the FDIC discloses the number of banks on its “problem bank” list. It does not release the names on the list. It is widely believed that some version of the Texas ratio forms the basis for the list.
The list of best performing banks includes 23 in Nebraska, 16 banks in Iowa, and 9 in South Dakota.
The state of New York scored 17 banks. And California, representing more than 10% of the entire population of the United States, had only 16 banks on the list of safest banks.
“The success for this circumstance belongs to four devoted employees of the bank”, Dave Domina said. They are Susan Gilmore, president, Bev Hitchcock, executive vice president, and Sandy Hall and Nancy Davis.
“But,” Domina said, “the real success story of Farmers State Bank of Carroll is the story of Franklin Gilmore, the bank’s president from 1983 until 2010 when his health turned bad. Mr. Gilmore died August 6, 2012. During his final days, when it is unlikely he was able to understand what was said to him, Susan, his wife, read Franklin the report and told him of Farmers State Bank’s distinction.”
“I’ve known and worked with Franklin and Sue Gilmore for nearly half my lifetime”, Domina said. “Whatever small contributions I might have made as a director, and as a friend of Franklin and Sue Gilmore, was repaid to me a thousand times over by Franklin Gilmore’s friendship, and sharing of his talents with me”.
Domina Law Group pc llo continues to be proud of its service to Farmers State Bank of Carroll, and to be especially proud of the bank’s success.