September 17, 2010 – The Bank of Ellijay, Ellijay, Georgia, was closed today by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance and the FDIC was named as receiver. The Bank of Ellijay was acquired by Community & Southern Bank, Carrollton, Georgia under a purchase and assumption agreement with the FDIC.  Community & Southern will assume all deposits and purchase essentially [...]

September 17, 2010 – The nation’s 120th banking failure of 2010 occurred today with the closing of ISN Bank, Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  ISN Bank was closed by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, which appointed the FDIC as receiver. The FDIC sold the failed one branch bank to New Century Bank (doing business as Customers Bank), Phoenixville, PA.   New [...]

September 15, 2010 – Big banks seem to be on the nation’s list of most hated institutions.  After being blamed for causing the financial crash of 2008 through reckless lending, banks are now taking heat for prolonging the recession with excessively stringent lending standards.  One industry to which banks have aggressively extended credit is now drawing criticism from [...]

September 15, 2010 – Defaulted mortgage loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the peak years of the mortgage boom are now resulting in billion dollar losses for some of the largest banks in the country. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, now under the conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), are seeking to limit their losses on defaulted mortgages by [...]

September 14, 2010 – Despite the fact that banks have already taken huge losses on bad loans, Moody’s Investor Service estimates that the US banking industry still needs to recognize an additional $268 billion in losses on defaulted loans. According to Moody’s, banks will write off a total of $744 billion in bad loans through the end of 2011.   To date, the banking [...]

September 10, 2010 – Horizon Bank, Bradenton, Florida, was closed by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Bank of the Ozarks, Little Rock, Arkansas, to assume all of the deposits and essentially all [...]

September 9, 2010 – As if the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) didn’t have enough issues to contend with, it now appears than criminals are impersonating the FDIC in an attempt to steal money or obtain sensitive financial information from consumers. The FDIC reports that it has received numerous reports of scam artists calling consumers and pretending to [...]

September 7, 2010 – The vast majority of banking industry assets are controlled by a small minority of large banking institutions.  As the number of banks has declined sharply over the past twenty years (see US Loses 7,300 Banks), banking assets have been concentrated into the hands of the banking giants.  Banks with more than $10 billion in assets control 78% of total [...]

September 4, 2010 – The latest FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile reports that for the first time in almost ten years, the number of banks has declined by more than 100 in a single quarter. The number of banking institutions declined by 104 for the quarter ending June 30, the most since 113 in the third quarter of 2000.  Banking failures accounted for the loss of 45 banks with [...]

September 3, 2010 – FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, in testimony before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission discussed how future systemic risks can be better managed and reduced under provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act.  Chairman Bair also said that new liquidation authority under the Act is a fundamental factor that will allow the U.S. to end the practice of “Too Big [...]