The latest Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data show Citizens Bank No. 1 in deposits in the Capital Region for the first time. And the mighty Bank of America slipped from first to fifth place in the annual deposits report, released earlier this month.

Providence, R.I.-based Citizens, which entered the market in 2004, says it has been pushing hard to be the top bank in the Albany region, which is the headquarters for its New York operations.

Bank of America, too, works hard to gain and keep deposits, according to the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank. Its precipitous drop — from $7.6 billion in deposits last year to $1.6 billion as of June 30 — was the result of moving where it credits some of its larger accounts.

That is, it shifted dollars on paper to other branches outside the region.

"It doesn't mean anything for the market, and doesn't say anything about the market. It's really, quite frankly, a bookkeeping matter," said Ernesto Anguilla, a spokesman for the bank.

"Albany is a fantastic market for us," he said. "Through our predecessor bank (Fleet Bank), we've got a great deal of history there."

Citizens points to its own growth and says it takes the annual rankings very seriously.

"We would like to be No. 1 in every market we do business in, clearly," said Robert Curley, president and chief executive of Citizens' New York arm. "But we've taken this market very seriously."

The FDIC is the federal agency that insures deposits in banks and thrifts. Its annual reports, publicly available at its Web site, are the most comprehensive view of how banks are doing, down to the branch level. years ago, a flurry of big takeovers rocked the region, causing major swings in the deposit share numbers. Citizens took over Charter One Bank, and Bank of America bought out Fleet. Also in 2004, Lockport-based First Niagara acquired Troy Savings Bank, giving it 4.7 percent of the region's deposits. It grew that to 8 percent the following year when it bought out Hudson River Bank & Trust Co.

But there have been few big deals lately. And there are fewer inviting targets left for takeover.

So instead of buying customers in bulk, banks have worked harder to pick them up one at a time. Many are offering higher premiums — an iPod, for instance, or $100 — for customers who open accounts with direct deposit, automatic bill-paying, and other services that make banks hard to drop.

"Now they're paying the customer instead of paying the shareholder of another bank," said Kevin Timmons, a banking analyst with Albany investment firm C.L. King & Associates Inc.

KeyBank, for instance, held on to the No. 2 spot for the second year in a row. But its deposits grew to $3.5 billion from $2.8 billion over the year and its Capital Region market share climbed to 20.1 percent, from 13.2 percent in 2005.

Its own Capital Region numbers benefited a few years ago when the Cleveland-based company moved government deposits back to local communities from a centralized accounting elsewhere. Now, the bank is trying to nibble away at its competition's deposits.

"At KeyCorp, we want to grow deposits. And in the past, it was easy to do if you were in the acquisition mode, and if you're building new branches," said Michael Orsino, Key's Capital Region president.

But banks are trying to grow deposits the hard way, by luring them over one at a time from competitors and then keeping them, in part by signing them up for more and different products.

Serve them well on a checking account, a mortgage and online bill-paying, the banks reason, and customers won't wander off at the first whiff of a better offer elsewhere. there's room at the margins for winners and losers, said Gary Townsend, a senior vice president and analyst with investment firm Friedman Billings Ramsey & Co. Inc. in Arlington, Va.

"Banks have worked hard to make customers more sticky" — interlacing services that make it hard for a customer to go to other institutions, Townsend said. "Having said that, there's a great deal of mediocre banking being done now."

Overall, deposits at the 24 banks with branches in the five-county Capital Region fell by $3.5 billion, to $17.5 billion, due largely to Bank of America's deposit transfers. The metro includes Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Schoharie counties.

And with low rates being paid on deposits, banks say they're also seeing money shifted from insured deposits to brokerage accounts and other areas not measured in the FDIC report. vagaries of the data aside, the annual reports are closely watched by analysts and other bankers, to measure how well the institutions are delivering on their promises.

The FDIC data allow investors or the competition to burrow down to the level of individual branches, to see how deposits have grown or shrunk, and compare that branch to the rival across the road.

"Generally speaking, companies that can grow their deposits faster than their competitors can grow their earnings per share faster," Townsend said. Sharing the wealth

Citizens Bank has vaulted to the number one spot in deposits in the region* for the first time, knocking Bank of America out of the top spot it — or predecessor Fleet Bank — held since 1996. Bank of America said its fall to fourth reflects shifts in where it accounts for deposits, rather than any actual decrease.

1. Citizens Bank 2005 rank: 3 Deposits: $3.84 billion Percent change from '04: 39.7

2. KeyBank 2005 rank: 2 Deposits: $3.5 billion Percent change from '04: 27.1

3. Trustco Bank 2005 rank: 4 deposits: $2.2 billion Percent change from '04: 4.3

4. First Niagara Bank 2005 rank: 5 Deposits: $2 billion Percent change from '04: 17.4

5. Bank of America 2005 rank: 1 Deposits: $1.6 billion Percent change from '04: 78.4

Source: Times Union research