Dolores State Bank has received an A+ financial health rating from consumer information website DepositAccounts.com, based on third quarter 2014 data.

The rating puts the Dolores State Bank in the top 13 percent of the approximately 13,000 federally insured banks and credit unions nationwide in terms of financial health, according to DepositAccounts spokesman Patrick Russo.

By DepositAccounts' measure, The Dolores State Bank has increased its total deposits by $8.39 million, resulting in 6.92 percent growth for 2014.

"A strong track record of growth is an indicator of consumer confidence and the bank's ability to strengthen its balance sheet," said the website's report. "The growth the Dolores State Bank has shown is excellent."

The Texas Ratio - an indicator of a bank's available capital compared with the value of at-risk loans - for The Dolores State Bank decreased from 10.37 percent as of Sept. 30, 2013, to 6.59 percent as of Sept. 30, 2014, resulting in a positive change of 36.48 percent, according to the DepositAccounts.com data.

"This indicates that the balance sheet and financial strength for the Dolores State Bank has improved dramatically in recent periods," the report said.

As of Sept. 30, 2014, The Dolores State Bank had $1.32 million in non-current loans and owned real-estate with $19.99 million in equity and loan loss allowances on hand to cover it.

Any bank with a Texas Ratio near or greater than 100 percent is considered at risk.

Each institution DepositAccounts ranks is graded on factors including capitalization, deposit growth, and loan to reserve ratios, in order to determine a comprehensive health rating.

"We're obviously very excited about it," said bank president Ed Meritt, noting that the bank has received A+ rating from groups like Bauer Financial for years.

"With the economy going through these bad times and going through the downturn, we still maintained A+ rating, I think it shows a lot about out customers, employees and stockholders."