List of at-risk US banks increases sharply – now, there’s a surprise!
An official “watch list” of potentially troubled US banks has lengthened from 90 to 117 as the credit crunch wreaks havoc throughout the financial industry.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which guarantees customers’ money held in US banks, said the quarterly list was the longest since mid-2003 and is asking its members to increase contributions to a dwindling bail-out fund…
So far this year, nine US banks have collapsed including California’s IndyMac Bancorp, the third largest failure of a high-street bank since the FDIC was created 75 years ago.
The FDIC does not disclose the identity of institutions on its watch list. But it said the aggregate total of assets held by troubled banks had risen from $26bn to $78bn, partly because the FDIC seized control of $32bn at IndyMac…
The FDIC has increased the number of staff handling banking failures by 60% as it faces the most challenging environment since the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s which drove hundreds of small financial institutions out of business.
Too many bankers went along with the Voodoo economists in the White House. And, let’s face it – they saw that nothing serious [or competent] was done to prevent the Enron fraud or punish corporate corruption.
Starting with sleazy storefront mortgages – unregulated and unlicensed – the majority of the banking industry, nationally and throughout the Western world, climbed on board the downbound train to get a piece of the action.
Congress and White House bought in. Of course.
