By Jeff McKinney
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Four years after losing its title as the Tristate's largest banking institution based on deposits, Fifth Third Bank has regained the crown.

The Cincinnati banking giant - long the area's most dominant and largest bank based on local assets, branches and ATMs - has not garnered the highest level of deposits since 1999, trailing its two biggest rivals in recent years.

According to new data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Fifth Third not only regained the top spot, but also did so despite being banned by regulators from making any acquisitions the past year.

The company's banking units in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky had combined deposits last year of $13.98 billion and 138 branches in a 12-county region mainly surrounding Greater Cincinnati, as of June 30, according to the FDIC.

That gain was up about $6 billion from the $7.9 billion Fifth Third reported in June 2002 and $4.1 billion more than the $9.88 billion that Provident Bank - last year's local deposit champ - posted June 30.

Even backing out some $3 billion in so-called "parked" deposits -- other savings or cash that banks use or buy that don't come from customers but often show up in deposit data - Fifth Third's deposits totaled about $11 billion for the first six months of 2003.

Moreover, Fifth Third's local market share grew to a whopping 27.8 percent, up from 20.5 percent as of June 30, 2002, the FDIC said.

In contrast, Provident's market share slipped to 20.29 percent from 21.69 percent. And U.S. Bank, the area's third bank with $8.7 billion in deposits and 115 branches as of June 30, had deposit market share of about 17.9 percent, down from 20.67 percent a year ago.

Fifth Third attributed its brisk growth to several things:

• A 13 percent gain in the number of checking, savings and brokerage accounts it sold to consumers during that period.

• A 37 percent rise in commercial deposits from June 2002 to June 2003, mainly by selling more products and services to local firms.

• Selling new deposit products to Fifth Third mortgage customers, targeting them as they took out home loans with the falling interest rates.

• The bank opened one branch in Loveland and two more in the Fairfield area last year.

Bob Niehaus, a Fifth Third executive vice president, said the bank is pleased to regain the top deposit spot, but will keep trying to build market share through aggressive marketing and by adding branches.

Banking analyst Fred Cummings of McDonald Investments in Cleveland said Fifth Third's deposit growth shows it can add new business internally and not just from buying other banks. He said the bank's deposit growth during the year has been helped by a year-to-date 16 percent rise in commercial lending company wide from a year ago.

Yet acquisitions have been a key part of Fifth Third's revenue and earnings growth the past decade, including many banks and thrifts it bought in Greater Cincinnati. Some analysts say acquisitions have fueled up to 30 percent of the bank's annual earnings growth in recent years.

But since last November, Fifth Third has been blocked from making acquisitions until banking regulators wrap up an investigation tied to internal accounting problems.

Meanwhile, Provident officials were not surprised that Fifth Third has regained its title.

Chris Carey, Provident's chief financial officer, said the Cincinnati-based bank has maintained for the last five years that Fifth Third is the area's largest bank based on deposits, contrary to the FDIC data.

For instance, Provident claimed the area's top spot as of June 30, 2002, with nearly $8.4 billion in deposits, while Firstar Bank, now U.S. Bank, was No. 1, with $11.5 billion in deposits in June 2001.

Carey said Provident was able to expand checking, savings and money market accounts last year by aggressively selling those products, but its deposit market share might have dipped slightly as it let some high-cost certificate of deposit accounts run off to help reduce funding costs.

"We're very pleased with where we are in deposits, particularly in Hamilton County, where we continue to grow low-cost transaction accounts at a fast rate," Carey said.

E-mail jmckinney@enquirer.com