WHAT IS
SAFE AND SOUND?
Capital acts as a bulwark against losses and as protection for depositors when a bank is struggling financially. Therefore, a bank's level of capital is an essential measurement of an institution's financial strength. From a safety and soundness perspective, the higher the capital, the better.
Logan Bank & Trust Company fell below the national average of 13.13 on our test to measure capital adequacy, receiving a score of 8 out of a possible 30 points.
One way to measure this buffer is looking at a bank's Tier 1 capital ratio. Logan Bank & Trust Company's Tier 1 capital ratio was 20.49 percent, exceeding the 6 percent level considered adequate by regulators, but below the national average of 25.65 percent. The higher the capital ratio, the better the bank will be able to stand up to economic headwinds.
Overall, Logan Bank & Trust Company held equity amounting to 8.48 percent of its assets, which was lower than the national average of 12.03 percent.
This test's purpose is to try to understand how the bank's loan loss reserves and overall capitalization could be affected by problem assets, such as unpaid loans.
Having a large number of these types of assets may eventually force a bank to use capital to absorb losses, shrinking its equity cushion. It also means that there are likely to be many assets that are in non-accrual status and thus aren't earning money, pushing down earnings and elevating the chances of a future failure.
Logan Bank & Trust Company scored 36 out of a possible 40 points on Bankrate's test of asset quality, below the national average of 37.49.
A helpful indicator of asset quality is the percentage of problem assets a bank holds compared to its total assets. As of December 31, 2017, 1.24 percent of Logan Bank & Trust Company's loans were noncurrent -- in other words, they were more than 90 days past due or were in non-accrual status. That's above the national average of 1.01 percent.
Banks keep a reserve known as an "allowance for loan and lease losses" to deal with troubled assets . Comparing the size of that reserve to the total amount of problem loans can be a useful indicator when evaluating a bank's ability to manage problem assets. Unfortunately, the FDIC did not provide information on Logan Bank & Trust Company's loan loss allowance in its most recent filings.
A bank's earnings performance has an effect on its long-term survivability. A bank can retain its earnings, expanding its capital buffer, or put them to work addressing problematic loans, likely making the bank better able to withstand economic shocks. However, banks that are losing money are less able to do those things.
Logan Bank & Trust Company fell short of the national average on Bankrate's test of earnings, achieving a score of 8 out of a possible 30.
Return on equity, calculated by dividing net income (profit, basically) by total equity, is one widely used measure of a bank's earnings. Logan Bank & Trust Company's most recent annualized quarterly return on equity was 3.42 percent, below the national average of 8.10 percent.
The bank earned net income of $792,000 on total equity of $21.7 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2017. The bank experienced an annualized return on average assets, or ROA, of 0.30 percent, below the 1 percent deemed satisfactory in accordance with industry standards and below the average for U.S. banks of 1.00 percent.
Bankrate.com's Safe & Sound Ratings provide a star rating system to evaluate the current financial status of financial institutions. The information gathered about banks, credit unions and thrifts is updated as set forth in the Terms of Use of Safe & Sound Ratings and Reports. The Safe & Sound Ratings information is grouped by categories of banks, thrifts and credit unions.
Bankrate.com evaluates the financial condition of institutions and assigns a one- to five-star rating for each with five stars representing the highest rating. Institutions with satisfactory performance will generally receive a rating of three or more stars. The majority of institutions fall into the three- to four-star range. An institution with an "NR" rating may be too new to rate or may have limited the publicly available information in their regulatory filings. The "NR" is not an indication of financial strength or weakness. The Safe & Sound rating is believed to be reliable, but the information is not guaranteed. In addition, events since the information was collected may have altered the institution's financial condition.