Centrue Bank and Citizens National Bank, Paris, have been downgraded to "problematic" by the BauerFinancial bank rating service based on data from Dec. 31, 2009.

Those two banks joined CIBM Bank (which does business locally as Central Illinois Bank) as the only banks in East Central Illinois with a 2-star rating – the fifth-lowest of seven possible ratings.

The ratings, which became available this week, showed that four area banks were downgraded from the previous quarter, while seven area banks were upgraded. The vast majority of banks in the area kept the same rating they had the previous quarter.

BauerFinancial bases its ratings on capital ratios, profitability trends, levels of delinquent loans, charge-offs and repossessed assets, liquidity, historical data and supervisory actions by regulatory agencies. It is one of several bank rating services, but differentiates itself from others by making its ratings widely accessible to the public.

Centrue and Citizens National had been rated 3-star ("adequate") until the recent downgrade.

Streator-based Centrue has more than 25 locations, including a Champaign office at 1001 S. Neil St. Most of its offices are in north central Illinois and in the greater St. Louis region. Centrue had $1.31 billion in assets as of Dec. 31 and posted a net loss of $31.4 million in 2009, according to call reports filed with federal regulators.

Citizens National has offices in Paris, Oakland, Charleston and Terre Haute, Ind. Citizens had $240 million in assets at the end of 2009 and had a $2.38 million net loss for the year.

CIBM Bank's 2-star rating was unchanged from the previous quarter. That bank has 17 offices in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Arizona, with those in Illinois using the Central Illinois Bank name. It had $698 million in assets at year's end and a $22.6 million net loss in 2009.

Also downgraded in the latest round of ratings were:

– Milford Building & Loan, which dropped from 5-star ("superior") to 4-star ("excellent").

– Citizens State Bank, Milford, which dropped two levels from 4-star ("excellent") to 3-star ("adequate"). It bypassed the 3 1/2-star level.

For depositors jittery about the ratings, there was some good news in the latest round.

Five area banks were upgraded from 3 1/2-star ("good") to 4-star ("excellent"). They included Bank of Rantoul; First Neighbor Bank, Toledo; Marine Bank, Springfield; Midland States Bank, Effingham; and Scott State Bank, Bethany.

The State Bank of Chrisman was upgraded from 4-star ("excellent") to 5-star ("superior").

National City Bank, which had been rated 3-star, but is now grouped with Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, which is rated 3 1/2-star. The National City offices in Champaign are scheduled to adopt the PNC name in June.

The largest locally based bank, Champaign-based Busey Bank, continued to be rated 3-star ("adequate") in the latest ratings.

See Tuesday's News-Gazette for a complete list of the ratings.