Nov. 21--St. Louis banks are paying up to get your money. Certificate of deposit rates are unusually high these days, bankers say, considering that the U.S. appears to be in a recession.

Banks are seeing profits fall as loan problems rise. Faced with such a squeeze, many banks are hungry for "liquidity" -- ready money that can be lent out or kept handy for emergencies. Consumer deposits are a stable source, hence the high deposit rates.

"There's a liquidity premium being paid," said Jim Watson, president of Midwest BankCentre in Clayton.

Bank deposit rates normally track short-term Treasury bills and the Fed Funds rate. Those have dropped to near-record levels -- 1 percent for Fed Funds and 0.5 percent on a six-month Treasury bill. Bank deposit rates have fallen too, but not nearly as much.

A saver this week could have landed 5 percent interest on a 14--month CD at First Financial Credit Union. Neighbors Credit Union was offering 4.25 percent on 7- to 10-month CDs and Reliance Bank was offering 4.3 percent on 20-month CDs to customers who open a checking account.

CD rates were higher a year ago, of course, and many local banks haven't joined in the recent bidding war for depositors' money. But bankers say the rates such as those above are remarkable considering the dismal state of the economy.

Chalk it up to the strange way that the banking crisis -- the worst since the Great Depression -- is unfolding.

Troubled banks are particularly hungry, and they find themselves frozen out of the market for wholesale money, such as brokered deposits and commercial paper. So they must lure consumers in with fat savings rates. National City, for instance, is offering its customers 4.5 percent on an 18-month CD. Federal regulators are forcing the troubled bank into a merger with PNC Financial.

The freeze-up in the commercial paper market -- where big corporations raise short-term money -- is adding to the pressure. Big corporations are drawing down on their lines of credit with big banks. Those big banks need consumer deposits to fund those loans, and so up go CD rates.

The crisis has produced some strange wrinkles on the smaller end of the market as well.

"Our loan demand is up, and we've not been able to attract the deposits," said Nina Pilger, chief executive at First Financial Credit Union, which was offering 5 percent on a CD.

Pilger says demand is coming largely from car buyers. The big auto makers' own financing arms, such as GMAC, are faltering and turning down buyers. So, the buyers are turning to credit unions. "We're financing cars left and right," Pilger said.