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Exhibit 31.2

CERTIFICATION AS ADOPTED PURSUANT TO
SECTION 302 OF THE SARBANES-OXLEY ACT OF 2002

I, Edward A. Townsend, certify that:



|1. |  | I have reviewed this annual report on Form 10-K of Local Financial
Corporation;                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
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|  
|2. |  | Based on my knowledge, this annual report does not contain any untrue
statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary in
order to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under
which such statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period
covered by this annual report;
|  
|3. |  | Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
information included in this annual report, fairly present in all material
respects the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of
the registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this annual
report;                            
|  
|4. |  | The registrants other certifying officer(s) and I are responsible for
establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as
defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) for the registrant
and we have:                                                                                                



| | (a) |  | Designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused
such disclosure controls and procedures to be designed under our
supervision, to ensure that material information relating to the
registrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known
to us by others within those entities, particularly during the
period in which this annual report is being prepared;  
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|
| | (b) |  | [intentionally omitted];                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
|
| | (c) |  | Evaluated the effectiveness of the registrants disclosure
controls and procedures and presented in this report our conclusions
about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures,
as of the end of the period covered by this annual report based on
such evaluation; and                                                                                             
|
| | (d) |  | Disclosed in this report any change in the registrants
internal control over financial reporting that occurred during the
registrants most recent fiscal quarter (the registrants fourth
fiscal quarter in the case of an annual report) that has materially
affected, or is reasonably likely to
materially affect, the registrants internal control over
financial reporting; and



|5. |  | The registrants other certifying officer(s) and I have disclosed, based
on our most recent evaluation of internal control over financial
reporting, to the registrants auditors and the audit committee of the
registrants board of directors (or persons performing the equivalent
functions):
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| | (a) |  | All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the
design or operation of internal control over financial reporting
which are reasonably likely to adversely affect the registrants
ability to record, process, summarize and report financial
information; and
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|
| | (b) |  | Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management
or other employees who have a significant role in the registrants
internal controls.                                                                                                                       

|                     |  |                        
|-------------------- |  | -----------------------
|Date: March 12, 2004 |  | /s/Edward A. Townsend  
|                     |  |                        
|                     |  | Edward A. Townsend     
|                     |  | Chief Executive Officer