More New Bank Closings In 2010

The FDIC has shut down banks in Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, bringing to nine the number of bank failures so far in 2010.

The FDIC on Friday took over the five banks. Charter Bank in Santa Fe N.M., Miami-based Premier American Bank, Bank of Leeton in Leeton, Mo., Columbia River Bank, based in The Dalles, Ore., and Seattle based Evergreen Bank.

Strangely, my main bank has just bought two failed banks through the FDIC which were not announced publicly. I ended up with an account number duplicated by one in one of the failed banks. Believe me, you do not want to get in that mess. My banks on line banking access had been shut down for 4 and 5 days on two occasions recently. Both times I asked if they were buying a bank failure since it was more than regular maintainance of two days down time. I was told no. Once the account number mix up had to be fixed they admitted what had happened. That shows that all failed banks are NOT reported. That being the case, we should be very concerned. I know I am! As one bank buys another, eventually you have a severely reduced number of banks left holding the bag.

I have located a new bank for but now I have three accounts doing what one did last month!

Slàinte,    

Patch    

FDIC shuts down several Illinois banks

One of the banks was run by the family of Illinois State Treasurer and US Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias.

This is likely a part of the new wave of commercial real estate failures, though we are facing a new, though smaller, wave of residential foreclosures related to mostly to unemployment.

It should put the total this year well over 60.

Slàinte,    

Patch    

Broadway Bank (the one that the Giannoulias family owned) had been on the FDIC's **** list for some time.

Political affilliation has no reguard for acts of negligence or greed.

Though the list is not for public knowledge there are many banks on the list waiting for buyers. The FDIC has to make some really lucrative deals to get other banks to consider a take over now.

My new bank is based in the Amish community near by and is about as conservative in it's investments as a bank can get. My old bank was also conservative in it's dealings over 30 years ago when we started our business relationship. However they were purchased twice and though they talked the conservative game, nothing could have been further from the truth.

I found that every time they shut down online banking over the weekend (which was frequently) for "maintainance", they were actually incorporating the purchase of more failed banks into their system. Maybe we should consider that to be a big red flag. My new bank has only experienced down time during power failures and they now have a generator and satellite access so that will no longer happen.

You never want to have an account number duplication! If you have no direct deposits or direct pay's it would be less burdensome. If direct deposits get lost between accounts you may not see them for quite some time.

Slàinte,    

Patch    

There were a lot of complaints about the expenditure for major bank bailouts. The criticism was that none of the banks should be bailed out at all -- there should be the equivalent of a prairie fire that sweeps the plain clean of everything that cannot survive, and lets the hardy institutions rise to the surface.

As long as it's not your own bank, I guess.

Let's make this a banner year!

Unfortunately it may be. A friend of mine has a family member that works as a Fed. bank examiner and one who is retired. Though they can not divulge specific information they feel this could be a "significant year." One did steer me to my new bank as being the most conservative in it's policies.

I guess we just watch and wait.

Slàinte,    

Patch    

I include this for a historical perspective. Let's hope this is not a banner year for bank failures!

In the first 10 months of 1930, a total of 744 US banks failed. In November and December of that same year, 600+ more banks failed.

Throughout the entirety of the Great Depression, over 9,000 US banks failed, which is by far the worst stretch in US history when it comes to bank failures.

The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) was created in 1933 by the Glass-Steagall Act.

The purpose of the FDIC was to provide deposit insurance which would ultimately guarantee the safety of deposits in member banks, up to a certain amount (currently $250,000 per depositor per bank today).

You can view the history of bank failures since the establishment of the FDIC below:

Year - Number of Bank Failures

2009 - 140
2008 - 30
2007 - 3
2006 - 0
2005 - 0
2004 - 4
2003 - 3
2002 - 11
2001 - 4
2000 - 7
1999 - 8
1998 - 3
1997 - 1
1996 - 6
1995 - 8
1994 - 15
1993 - 50
1992 - 181
1991 - 271
1990 - 382
1989 - 534
1988 - 470
1987 - 262
1986 - 204
1985 - 180
1984 - 106
1983 - 99
1982 - 119
1981 - 40
1980 - 22
1979 - 10
1978 - 7
1977 - 6
1976 - 17
1975 - 13
1974 - 4
1973 - 6
1972 - 2
1971 - 7
1970 - 7
1969 - 9
1968 - 3
1967 - 4
1966 - 7
1965 - 5
1964 - 7
1963 - 2
1962 - 1
1961 - 5
1960 - 1
1959 - 3
1958 - 4
1957 - 1
1956 - 2
1955 - 5
1954 - 2
1953 - 2
1952 - 3
1951 - 2
1950 - 4
1949 - 4
1948 - 3
1947 - 5
1946 - 1
1945 - 1
1944 - 2
1943 - 5
1942 - 20
1941 - 15
1940 - 43
1939 - 60
1938 - 74
1937 - 75
1936 - 69
1935 - 25
1934 - 9

As you can see, the worst single year for bank failures since the introduction of the FDIC came in 1989. This was at the height of the savings and loan crisis in the United States, and was also the same year that the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) was formed.


The highest number of bank failures in one year since 1900 was 1,352. This took place in 1930.

In 2005 and 2006, there were 0 bank failures in the United States.

The largest bank failure ever was Washington Mutual (WaMu). Washington Mutual failed in 2008 and reportedly had over $300 billion in assets at the time of their failure.



Data Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

There was no bail out back then to postpone closings and in the 20's and 30's there was no FDIC to prevent runs on banks. Today, we are still looking at foreclosures on the good mortgages gone bad due to unemployment and the commercial real estate crisis that is just beginning to take place. Also there are still toxic assets in the system.

This is likely to be a banner year and next year another.

The crisis unfolding in the DU will likely continue to spread and no country will be immune.

Slàinte,    

Patch