They’re the community banks you don’t read about in the news these days, names like American National Bank in Oakland Park, City National Bank of Florida in Miami and First National Bank of South Miami. But in the middle of a recession and a historic banking crisis, who’s complaining

These and a handful of other South Florida institutions have been largely under the radar because of what they have done right: maintaining strong numbers during a horrible time for banks — as reflected in measurements like the five-star ratings they have maintained from bank rating service Bauer Financial, the Coral Gables firm’s highest score on its zero-to-five-star scale.

“What we’ve done is just really stuck to the basics,” said Ginger Martin, president and chief executive of American National Bank, which for the quarter ended Sept. 30 received its 11th consecutive five-star rating. “We have strong underwriting, we haven’t gotten involved in exotic types of instruments, and our focus has been on the commercial real estate market. We have not done any residential lending whatsoever.”

Coral Gables-based Bauer Financial defines five-star institutions as having twice the capital required by regulators while being either profitable or having only an insignificant loss for the reporting quarter. They also are distinguished by minuscule numbers of bad loans. Also on the current five-star list in South Florida are Bank of Belle Glade, First Bank of Miami, First Southern Bank in Boca Raton, Grand Bank & Trust of Florida in West Palm Beach and Intercontinental Bank of West Miami.

“No. 1, a five-star rating indicates that you’re safe,” said Michael Lozoff, a partner at Adorno & Yoss in Miami and chairman of the firm’s Financial Institutions Department. “That means they have sufficient capital and the types of ratios that regulators like to see. In terms of what they’re doing operationally ... they’re doing it through traditional means. They’re trying to lend money. They’re looking for customers. You’re talking about local business owners, doctors, CPAs, lawyers, a target market that has been historically good with revolving credit. Even in this environment, they’re trying to compete, they’re trying to offer favorable rates.”

As a group, five-star banks in South Florida have tended to be smaller institutions with a focus on professional clients, often located in or near high-income ZIP codes. They have navigated through the decade with a healthy skepticism toward residential lending in general and exotic financing in particular. But Martin notes that even for traditionally strong institutions like her 23-year-old locally owned, single-unit bank, past is not prologue: Bad things can happen to good borrowers.

“I definitely see a weakening in commercial real estate,” she said. “It has held its ground longer than the residential has and I really have only one loan on non-accrual, so we haven’t seen anything really blow up on us yet. But we have our eyes wide open, and we’re thinking about what we’re going to do if that does happen. We’re really trying to stay in touch with our borrowers. We’re still going to have some loans that are going to get in trouble just because of the economy.”

While no one is minimizing the problems facing the banking industry — mired in its worst crisis since the 1930s — banking experts say there’s a “15,000 airliners land today without incident” element to the story that has too often been overlooked.

“It’s unfortunate, but the banking industry I believe could do a much better job of getting its story out,” said Ken Thomas, an independent banking analyst based in Miami. “There are banks that are doing exceptionally good jobs of not only still making loans, but making money while they’re doing it. But right now, the banking industry has got a big target on its back and Jay Leno is making jokes and they are being looked at as the villains. They’re sitting on the TARP money, they’ve got the bad loans, they’re the bad guy now.”

He said there is nothing complicated about what the strongest banks have been doing.

“They focused on the basics: Paying reasonable rates on deposits, providing good customer service, and making good loans, you’re going to do well whether you’re a $50 million bank or a $1 billion bank,” Thomas said. “Those banks that are continuing to do well during the recession, that says something about management. If you can do well in both good and bad times, it’s not the environment, it has something to do with management. They’ve not deviated into risky types of loans, they have not gone into exotic sub-prime mortgage products. They didn’t get caught up in the problems at Fannie and Freddie.”

Many focused on what they did well when competitors in the middle of the decade were plunging into the mania of exotic loan products.

“Everyone was getting great returns, but it’s a risk/reward and we didn’t see the value in taking that much risk for the return that you would get on those investments. If anything seems too good to be true, it probably is,” said Drew Dammeier, president of First National Bank of South Miami, whose bank has the longest running string of consecutive five-star quarters among South Florida-based institutions, dating back to 1990. “Our return on investments may not have been as great, but we understood them, we understood our customers and the investments that we make.”

Dammeier said the bank has always considered itself not so much a conservative, but a fair, loan underwriter.

“We’re definitely looking at the professional market. We’ve done well with all the professionals, be it accountants, attorneys, medical professionals, we have a fabulous location next to the South Miami Hospital. We’re actually looking for the same things that the customers are: ‘Let’s get to know each other so that we understand where you’re coming from.’ That’s what will make the relationship work.”

American National’s Martin says her bank’s relationship focus has also paid dividends.

“We haven’t had to have the highest rates in the market,” Martin said. “That has added to our profitability because our cost of funds is low. For 2008, year-to-date, we made more money than in 2007, which is almost unheard of,” as loans continue to perform and the cost of funds remained low.

While five-star banks tend to be smaller institutions clustered in affluent communities, Dammeier said those factors aren’t as important as meets the eye.

“I don’t think that it helps. It helps that we have lines of businesses that we understand and can maintain,” he said. “I think if you’re in a less affluent area, that you, too, can be successful if you have understood your customers, understood what they needed and could provide that. In the early ’50s when the bank was opened, [South Miami] actually was more of a farming community. We didn’t locate there because it was affluent at the time — it happens to be affluent now — but we feel that our philosophy would work in just about any community.”

Location does matter in another key sense, Martin said.

“Our focus is in Broward. When we’re lending, we know the market,” she said. “We’re not having decisions made by somebody in another city.”

Thomas sees things in much the same way.

“If you added another zero to all of these banks, they would probably still perform relatively well,” he said. “They just have certain mind-sets of how banking should be done. All of these banks have been through the 2001 recession, the ’90-’91 recession, some even ’82-’83. We’re now in a recession that’s going to be the longest and deepest since the 1930s. So this will be somewhat of a different test, but the fact that we are about halfway through the recession now, the next set of numbers will be 12 months into it and if these banks continue to report similar star ratings in the fourth quarter, that will be a further verification.”

Lozoff said the banks that emerge the strongest from the recession will be those that recognize that their primary investment is in loans, and “if you don’t lend money you don’t have cash flow or an income flow.

“If anything gets your bank or credit union going it’s the ability to make loans, the ability to make safe loans and the ability to safely reserve for those older loans that may now be in a delinquent status, without jeopardizing your profit,” he said. “And also keeping a close eye on delinquencies. Even if someone is 10 days late and they haven’t been 10 days late before, you’re paying attention to that and you’re going to reach out to them. You’re not going to let them go bad.”