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                                                                      EXHIBIT 31

           CERTIFICATION OF PRINCIPAL EXECUTIVE AND FINANCIAL OFFICER

      I, Paul W. Pence, Jr., certify that:

1.    I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of Merchants Bancorp,
      Inc.;

2.    Based on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue
      statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary 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 quarterly report;

3.    Based on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial
      information included in this quarterly 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
      quarterly report;

4.    The registrant's other certifying officer 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 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
            Company, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to
            us by others within those entities, particularly during the period
            in which this quarterly report is being prepared;

      b)    Evaluated the effectiveness of the Company'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 report based on such evaluation;
            and

      c)    Disclosed in this report any changes in the Company's internal
            control over financial reporting that occurred during the Company's
            most recent fiscal quarter (the Company's fourth fiscal quarter in
            the case of an annual report) that has materially affected, or is
            reasonably likely to materially affect, the Company's internal
            control over financial reporting; and

5.    The registrant's other certifying officer 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):

      a)    All significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design
            or operation of internal controls over financial reporting which are
            reasonable likely to adversely affect the Company's ability to
            record, process, summarize and report financial information; and

      b)    Any fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or
            other employees who have a significant role in the Company's
            internal controls; and

Date: May 14, 2005                                      /s/ Paul W. Pence, Jr.
                                                        ------------------------
                                                        Paul W. Pence, Jr.
                                                        President and Principal
                                                        Financial Officer