WEST PALM BEACH-A new study finds that Ohio, Kentucky and Louisiana are among the best states for banking, while Illinois, South Carolina and Oklahoma round out the bottom three worst states.
The study is a project of MoneyRates.com, which ranked the top ten best and worst states for banking based on factors such as customer satisfaction (using data from a Toluna survey exclusive to MoneyRates.com), stability (comparing the total number of 2012 bank failures in each state with the total number of banks based in that state), availability of high interest rates, and the size of the banking community (used primarily as a tie-breaker).
Ohio tops the list, in large part because no Ohio-based banks failed in 2012, and because the Buckeye State ranked fifth-highest for customer satisfaction. Additionally, Nationwide Bank-which made the top 10 for money-market rates in a recent America's Best Rates survey-is based in Ohio.
Rounding out the top 10 are Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, West Virginia, New York, Virginia, North Dakota, Colorado and Texas.
Illinois sits at the bottom of the list, due in large part to holding the tenth-worst score for customer satisfaction and being home to eight bank failures in 2012. South Carolina also has a below-average customer satisfaction score and saw two bank failures in 2012, but ranked lower because those failures represent a larger portion of the overall banking community.
The remainder of the list is made up of Oklahoma, Minnesota, Georgia (#1 in bank failures in 2012, with 10), Rhode Island, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Hawaii and Indiana.
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