BY LARRY GRARD

Staff Writer

The credit crisis that has Congress scrambling for a bailout of financial institutions is not evident in Maine, area lenders said Wednesday.

Banks and credit unions report they have plenty of money to loan.

The reason, said Skowhegan Savings Bank president John Witherspoon, is that lenders have been careful and consumers have been prudent.

"In Maine and much of New England, more independent and commercial banks are more conservative in their banking practices," Witherspoon said. "Customers are more conservative, too. We all come from the same cultural background. We're more practical -- more conservative."

People in Maine aren't seeking home loans they can't afford to pay. And the banks probably wouldn't grant those loans anyway.

"We never made those (risky subprime) loans, and not many banks in New England did," Witherspoon said. "Our criteria have not changed at all, and we're looking for loans. We've got plenty of money to loan."

Witherspoon said that the state's banks are well covered for FDIC loans, and own plenty of capital.

"We have double the amount of capital we would need, according to banking regulators," he said.

'We have money to lend'

That hasn't prevented some worried consumers from asking bankers if they are backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which protects the first $100,000 of deposits that are payable in the United States. One elderly person who lived through the Great Depression entered a Skowhegan Savings Bank and asked for a withdrawal.

The national banking crisis also hasn't had a negative effect on the Farmington-based Franklin Savings Bank, and its seven branches.

"We're not struggling a bit," said President Peter Judkins. "We have money to lend and we are in a kind of enviable position in that we have been able to fund our loan growth with our deposits."

Judkins said that larger banking institutions are facing a liquidity crunch because they can't borrow money and can't lend to their commercial customers.

"We don't have to borrow money. We are homegrown. People deposit money with us and we invest it in the form of loans back in our communities, and we don't lend out of our market."

Franklin Savings has been rated the strongest bank in Maine for nine consecutive years and is the only bank in northern New England to receive an "A" rating by TheStreet.com, the nation's leading independent provider of ratings and analyses of financial services companies.

"We are very self-contained and very well capitalized," Judkins said. "We keep it simple. We don't have a stock investment portfolio at all."

'It's more affordable here'

Allan Rancourt, president of Kennebec Federal Savings in Waterville, also said that his bank also has money to loan -- and that home buyers can find value in the region.

"It's more affordable for people here to purchase homes," Rancourt said. "And you didn't see a lot of those toxic adjustable-rate mortgages."

Rancourt said that a $125,000 home on Violette Avenue in Waterville might go for $500,000 to $700,000 in San Jose, Calif.

Kelley Carter, vice president of operations at Sebasticook Valley Federal Credit Union in Pittsfield, said the credit union has received a few calls from its members wondering whether their money is insured. It is, Carter said, through the National Credit Union Administration.

"We're not seeing anybody come to try to take their money out, and we're not going to get to that point," Carter said. "The central banks are making sure there's plenty of liquidity in the markets."

'We're going to get through this'

Carter said his message to members is to stay calm and trust that "we're going to get through this like we have in the past. The way I see what's going on with Congress, I'm very confident they're going to pass some kind of bill to stabilize the economy."

As for a credit crisis in Maine, he said, "I'm not seeing it."

The bigger concern, Carter said, is how its members will pay for higher home-heating fuel bills this winter. The credit union is offering loans with no interest to help people purchase fuel, he said.

Staff writers Betty Jespersen and Scott Monroe contributed to this story.