Nebraska has 22 banks that are the safest places to deposit money in America, and two of those banks are in Lincoln County, a national news service reported recently.

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The Nebraskaland National Bank of North Platte is the largest Nebraska bank on the elite list of the safest banks in the nation. The Farmers State Bank of Wallace and the Curtis State Bank in nearby Frontier County also earned places on the list.

Microsoft News-Money (MSN) published the list of the 359 safest banks in America on July 13.

The banks are ranked according to the "Texas Ratio" -- a formula that compares the number of bad loans a bank has made to the cushion the bank's owners have provided to cover the bad loans.

Out of the 7,300 banks in America, just 359 (5 percent) achieved a perfect Texas Ratio of 0.0, including the three banks near North Platte, MSN reported.

The report says that it's wise to pay attention to which banks are the safest because the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Commission's fund -- the money used to cover bank failures -- is all but drained. The FDIC had a healthy $52.4 billion in 2007 but only has $11.8 billion today. Most of the remaining funds are expected to be needed in the next four years, MSN said, but the FDIC fund will slowly replenish.

Nebraska, with its 22 safest banks, is fourth-highest among the 50 states, trailing only Texas (58 of the safest banks), Illinois (27) and Kansas (24).

By contrast, the two highest populated states near the U.S. coasts have relatively few banks that are as safe. New York State has just 17 banks on the list and California, 16.

The complete MSN report, with the list of banks, is HERE.