Unlike their big national and international cousins mired in a global credit crisis, community banks in the have money to lend, several Northwest Indiana bankers are saying.

In fact, September was among the best months for lending at the local level, area bank presidents said.

"We're ahead of last year in mortgage lending originations," said David Rose, president/chief executive officer of Horizon Bank in Valparaiso, which has 18 branches in Northwest Indiana and Southwest Michigan.

Centier Bank, headquartered in Merrillville, also has experienced a rise in lending opportunities since late summer, said Michael Schrage, president & CEO. All forms of loans -- including for homes, home equity, cars, RVs and commercial/business purposes -- have seen increased activity, Schrage said.

"We haven't raised our rates or felt the need to adjust our rates," he said.

David Bochnowski, president/CEO of Peoples Bank, said "There's plenty of cash available for all our customers.

The financial institutions featured in media stories regarding the economic crisis are primarily New York-based, Bochnowski said, and what people are seeing on the news "is the New York view of the world. That's left an impression that all banks are facing those problems. I'm not aware of any community banks having those problems."

The risky business behavior that got those big banks in financial trouble -- issuing loans in the sub-prime market and sponsoring consumer credit cards -- was never part of community banking, the local presidents said.

"We have always been a conservative lender. We haven't changed our policies," said Darlene Beerling, president/CEO of Whiting-based Liberty Savings & Loan. "Right now I have seven loan applications ready for our loan committee to review."

Beerling said as a savings and loan, Liberty is regulated by the federal Office of Thrift Supervision, which regularly examines assets and loans.

"Big lending institutions like Countrywide don't have a regulatory agency checking on them," she said. "They would grant a loan that was 125 percent of the value of a property. We didn't know how they could do that."

Larger banks' woes are actually giving community banks more opportunities, said Thomas Prisby, president and CEO of Citizens Financial Bank, headquartered in Munster.

"The large banks are having a liquidity crisis," Prisby said. "They need an influx of capital. When you don't have liquidity, it's difficult to lend money."