January 23, 2009

Maryland banks are seeing past-due loans and declining profits as the economy tanks, but banking and regulatory officials remain optimistic that local institutions will not fail.
"Notwithstanding these difficult conditions, in general, Maryland's state-chartered banks remain well-capitalized," Sarah Bloom Raskin, commissioner of financial regulations for the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said before the Maryland Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.

While national banking giants have crumbled, smaller Maryland banks have survived because they were not heavily involved in the subprime mortgage market and did not have significant investments in faltering mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Raskin said.In fact, state-chartered banks' assets grew 8 percent between September 2007 and September 2008 to $30 billion, and deposits have increased by more than $1 billion during that time.