Banks await shakeout

As National City apparently flirts with a takeover, analysts say the outlook for Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky's other regional banks is a moving target. At play are markets in turmoil, a persistent credit crunch and the wait while the federal government decides how it will spend $700 billion to bail out the financial industry. Analysts are doubtful that regional banks such as National City and Key Bank of Cleveland, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third and Columbus-based Huntington National Bank will directly benefit from federal dollars if the Treasury does what it suggested this week and makes direct investments into troubled institutions. Instead, the experts believe the government will use the $700 billion to save large institutions whose collapse would cause broad harm to financial markets. Michael Ferguson, a... [read full story]