As start-up tide ebbs in the East, survivors are performing solidly.

Young banks in the eastern states appear to have finally put the roller coaster ride of growth and failure behind them, according to a report by a Maryland banking consultancy.

In its annual survey of commercial banks opened from Maine to South Carolina since 1985, Rockville-based Danielson Associates Inc. said that new banks in the East are finally seeing consistent rewards for their efforts.

"The improved banking environment has helped earnings across the board," said Arnold Danielson, president of the firm, which has developed a specialty in start-ups.

11 States in Survey

"Twenty-nine [of the 214] banks appear on their way to $1 million or more earnings in 1993."

The wave of new banks in the East began in earnest in 1985 as the stock market heated up. That year 21 banks were founded in the survey area, which spanned 11 states and the District of Columbia.

In 1987, before the October stock market crash, a whopping 46 banks opened their doors in the region.

Only One 1993 Launch

But the number of new openings declined steadily before virtually drying up in 1992, with just three banks opened in the survey area. So far this year, Mr. Danielson said, just one bank has been launched there -- Panasia Bank in Fort Lee, N.J.

It turns out that the best states in which to have opened a bank in the last seven years were Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

The 13 banks that have opened in those three states since 1986 have enjoyed an enviable $20.7 million annual average growth in deposits.

The District of Columbia, where a new bank seemed to pop up on every street corner in the 1980s, turns out to have been the most hostile environment for new banks.

Of the 11 banks launched there from 1980 to 1989, only two remain open -- and their average annual deposit increase is a mere $4.1 million.

Three new banks have failed in the last two years in D.C.

N.Y. Bank Top Performer

Throughout the East, however, new banks are making money. Even the annualized earnings for banks opened as late as 1991, on average, have been positive, the survey showed.

Of the banks opened in the East since 1984, the best performer by far is Commercial Bank of New York City. It has had an nnualized net income of $8 million since it opened in July 1988, and its average annual deposit increase has been $119 million.

The East's worst-performing new bank was also founded in 1988. First Montgomery Bank, Gaithersburg, Md., has had an annualized net loss of $1.8 million an average annual deposit increase of $6.5 million.

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