NATCHEZ — While the federal government struggles to reach an agreement on the credit crisis and home foreclosure are on the rise, residents in the Miss-Lou remain fairly secure.

“I don’t think we’ll see the foreclosures,” United Mississippi Bank Senior Vice President Mike Ellard said. “Generally, most community banks, if someone can’t afford a mortgage, they don’t do a subprime mortgage.”

And the sale of subprime mortgages is one of the roots of the problem, Ellard said.

“I think over a period of time, in an effort to get more people in homes, the federal government kind of pressured banks to open up the gates a little bit,” he said.

But most of this opening of the gates did not come from community banks like Britton & Koontz and United Mississippi Bank. It came from mortgage brokers.

Mortgage brokers would entice homebuyers with low introductory rates, which would be raised to unaffordable levels after a short period of time.

“It was a little bit of a greed factor,” Ellard said. “Any time you’ve got loose standards and greed there’s a day a reckoning.”

Much of the subprime lending has come in high growth areas of the country, such as California, Florida, Las Vegas and Texas.

People in these areas saw the rapid appreciation of property values and thought that it would be a good, quick investment, Ellard said.

“They got lulled to sleep by a good economy,” he said. “But Natchez is not a high growth area so we have not been lulled to sleep here.”

Most foreclosures in Miss-Lou have been part of normal banking practices, particularly at the end of the quarter. Five foreclosures have been reported in September in Adams County.

“We’ve got about $165 million (in loans) and some of those are going to drop out on you,” Ellard said.

B&K Bank has also avoided most of the trouble.

“Whenever you make loans you’re going to make some bad loans, but we try to keep that to a minimum,” Ogden said. “I don’t think that banks here, particularly B&K have been great participants in this subprime market.”

“We are not seeing these massive issues that you have in some parts of the country and with subprime lending in general,” he said.

Lending is expected to slow down, but Ogden much of that is caused by investors wanting to curb their spending in the bad economy.

“The news we’re hearing in Washington really dampens your enthusiasm about going out and starting a new business or getting a new car or getting that new house,” Ogden said.

While the federal government has had to take over Washington Mutual, other large banks, like Regions is still doing fine.

“As for our company, we have virtually none, virtually no subprime loans,” Regions spokesman Mel Campbell said. “That has not been an issue for us because we just don’t hold those kinds of loans.

Ellard also said that lending standards are going to be greatly tightened, making it harder for people to get loans.

But the biggest concern for people is the safety of their deposits, Ellard said.

However, the FDIC insures up to $100,000 per account, which means that a married couple could have three accounts —one in each of their names and one joint — all up to $100,000, all insured.