Bank Failure | Wheatworks Blog: Financial Matters

Can You Know If Your Bank is Safe?

7/27/2008, 9:47 am

I wrote last week in “Is Your Bank Safe? Is it Sound?” about BankRate.com’s bank rating service, Safe & Sound®.

Yesterday, Mish Shedlock wrote, “Don’t Count on the “Safe & Sound” Rating of Bankrate.com“, in his blog “Global Economic Trend Analysis” … and he offers a good reason.

On July 25, 2008, First Heritage Bank, N.A., Newport Beach, CA, was closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency OCC and passed into Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FDIC receivership without advance notice. The bank had a 3 out of 5 star rating from Bankrate’s “Safe & Sound” rating service.

This is enough to make one wonder about the reliability of bank rating services.

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Tags: bank failure, bank rating, FDIC, Office of the Comptroller, safe and sound
Category: Banking Information, Consumer Safety | Comment

The Banking System, Credit Card Rates and Debit Cards for 401k’s

7/24/2008, 9:50 pm

You Know The Banking System Is Unsound When….
Credit card rates can go up … well, just because
Debit cards for your 401k

Not a lot of good news or positive views in these three, but certainly important considerations. I’d read them in the order provided. First Mish’s take on the banking system, then the eye-opening results of a survey of credit card companies that raise rates “just because”, and finally the worst idea of all … a firm that offers debit cards for 401k accounts … absolutely dumb.

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Tags: 401(k), bank failure, debit cards, interest rates
Category: Banking Information, Consumer Credit, Financial Links, Retirement | 1 Comment

Bank Failures to Increase

5/31/2008, 3:00 pm

Marketwatch.com’s news article, Bank failures to surge as credit crunch slows economy, continues a pattern of news articles I’ve read lately about the consequences the banking industry is facing because of what many call loose lending behaviors.

While there have only been 3 bank failures to date in 2008, some industry projections are that at least 150 banks will fail in the U.S. in the next two to three years. In fact, the Federal Reserve currently has a special hiring program in place to increase the number of bank examiners because of the expected bank failures in our near future.

If you’ve ever wondered what a bank bank examiner does and are looking for a steady job, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago offers information about the job requirements. If you want to know what a bank examiner does, read the information on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

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