But Old Line has increased profits by almost one-third this year as competitors struggle. It even avoided the poison investments - Fannie Mae preferred, soured mortgage bonds - that wounded other community banks.
To be sure, the bank benefits from being in Maryland, whose economy is healthier than that of the nation as a whole. Its main products are commercial loans, not the residential mortgages that blew up in so many other bankers' faces.
But it had plenty of chances to mess up. It holds more than $10 million in home loans. And, says Ely, "what I find most unusual is that they've [lent] $16 million to homebuilders, and everything appears to be current."
Old Line avoided housing traps by rejecting subprime loans, by not financing entire subdivisions and by picking builders it knew with steady profits, said Cornelsen, who has run the bank since 1994. Old Line was founded in the late 1980s.
While its stock has suffered along with those of other financiers, Old Line's shares are down only about 30 percent from last year's highs, while those of many banking companies have plunged more than twice as far.
"We weren't tempted at all" by the easy money of 2005 and 2006, says Cornelsen, though he admits he's surprised by the scope of the reckoning. "We kept on shaking our heads and said, the day will come when you separate the good lenders from the lazy lenders. And I believe that day is coming."
It's here. The federal government has shut down 19 banks this year and will surely close many more before it's through.
What angers Cornselsen and other small bankers is that they're suffering - in reputation, lower profits and higher FDIC premiums - from the irresponsibility of Bear Stearns, Citigroup and the other monsters that fueled the housing bubble.
"Most of us are pretty mad. We're mad because we ran our businesses in the proper way," he said. "To see it all come out of the investment side - out of Wall Street - and then have all these problems being blamed on 'banks' by the press, by the legislature - it's terribly frustrating to the community banker."
He doesn't expect Old Line borrowers to maintain their perfect record. The bank is adding to reserves to deal with possible defaults.
"The dynamics have changed out there," he said. "We'll have a loan or two go past due, most likely. We want to be prepared."
But neither is it rejecting new, qualified clients.
Insight Technology Solutions, a Bowie-based information-technology contractor for the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security, closed last week on a $500,000 line of credit from Old Line. The loan, says ITS President Gary Anderson, would let him expand and hire dozens of people if he wins new business he hopes to land.
"The lending environment for small businesses has certainly gotten much tighter," he said. "I was very happy to see that some of the smaller banks were willing and able to lend money to businesses my size. I certainly think I will be using that line."
