Wilmington-based Live Oak Bank is one of the healthiest banks in the nation, according to bank information website DepositAccounts.com.
 
The website’s list, 2014 Top 200 Healthiest Banks in America, released earlier this month, puts Live Oak at 126 and gives it an A+ rating, based on four measures of growth and stability. Those measures are Texas Ratio, Texas Ratio Trend, Deposit Growth and Capitalization. Detailed information for the bank is available here.
 
The Texas Ratio measure was developed by RBC Capital Markets as a way to determine the overall credit troubles experienced by financial institutions, the website stated. The ratio is calculated by comparing the total value of at-risk loans to the total value of funds the bank has on hand to cover these loans. The lower the resulting percentage, the healthier the bank. Live Oak’s percentage was .57 percent, the best of any North Carolina bank with assets of $100 million or greater, according to DepositAccounts.
 
Live Oak’s Texas Ratio Trend is healthy as well, the website stated, pointing to the bank’s growing portfolio of solid loans.
 
In the area of Deposit Growth, the website pointed to Live Oak’s most recent measure of deposits as being just over $426 million. Its overall assets grew from nearly $390 million as of June 2013 to just over $500 million a year later, earning it an A+ in this category.
 
“Deposit growth is an indicator of consumer confidence and the bank’s ability to strengthen its balance sheet,” DepositAccounts stated on its website.
 
Live Oak Bank also got an A+ in the area of Capitalization, the measure of its available capital.
 
Data for the 2014 list was taken from available data at the end of 2013, said DepositAccounts’ spokesman Patrick Russo on Tuesday.
 
Live Oak Bank topped the list of healthy North Carolina banks. The only other North Carolina-based banks on the Top 200 list for 2014 are Raleigh-based CapStone Bank (which merged with NewBridge Bank early in 2014, and thus was regarded as a separate institution at the end of 2013) and Select Bank & Trust Co., based in Greenville.
 
DepositAccounts compiled a similar list for the country’s credit unions. The only North Carolina-based credit union in the top 200 was First Flight, headquartered in Cary.
 
The website, which provides a broad range of information about specific financial institutions and allows consumers to compare those institutions’ offerings, began in 2005 when engineer Ken Tumin started it as a way to help people find the best deals at banks and credit unions. It has since become Tumin’s full-time occupation; the company now has a team of developers and researchers devoted to creating a comprehensive resource “dedicated to depository savings information,” according to the website.