Banking Industry going through hard times thanks to Biden's inflation

FDIC Problem Bank List: 63 Banks Now on Watch in 2024

Too big to fail?

The FDIC is not telling us what banks are on their watch list...confidentiality they say. This is not helpful to us, the consumer, but it avoids a run on the bank.

"Here's a breakdown of what it is and how it works:

• Confidentiality: The list itself is not publicly available, which allows the FDIC to work with troubled banks discreetly to help them improve their condition.

• Identification Process: Banks are assigned a CAMELS rating by FDIC examiners. This rating looks at various aspects of the bank's health, including Capital, Assets, Management, Earnings, and Liquidity. Scores range from 1 (best) to 5 (worst). Banks with CAMELS ratings of 4 or 5 are placed on the Problem Bank List.

• FDIC Intervention: If a bank remains on the Problem List and their situation doesn't improve, the FDIC may take steps to intervene. This could involve selling the bank to a healthier institution or taking control and liquidating it, with insured deposits being paid back to depositors.

As we move through 2024, the U.S. banking system faces significant challenges, with reports indicating a staggering $517 billion in unrealized losses threatening the stability of 63 banks. This situation has brought the health of the entire system under intense scrutiny, raising concerns about potential insolvency and the broader implications for the economy.

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My bank, Wells Fargo, leads the pack with at least 88 bank closure filings, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. They closed our wonderful branch on Lake and Federal and we have been forced to use their branch on North Dixie. I continue to do business with them as I have been with them when I started banking here, first at The Mall Bank which was taken over by Wachovia and that one taken over by Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo is one of the country’s oldest banks, with a history spanning over 160 years. In the last few years, the bank has been rocked by several scandals, beginning with a large-scale attempt to artificially boost its number of accounts — followed by hefty fines, legal fees and a $1.95 trillion cap on its assets. But it remains one of the largest banks in the U.S.

My thinking has always been, too big to fail. I might be in fantasy land.

Bank Risk

Almost 200 US Banks Are at Risk of Silicon Valley Bank-Like Collapse: Study

"Nearly 200 more banks could be vulnerable to the same type of risk that collapsed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) earlier this month, according to a recently published study.

There are 186 banks across the United States that could collapse if half of their respective uninsured depositors withdraw their funds, researchers with the Social Science Research Network found. Deposits at member banks of up to $250,000 are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., although the agency agreed to insure depositors’ funds far above that after SVB’s collapse this month."

I bank at Wells Fargo and complain all of the time about the low interest it pays its customers. But I believe this bank is too big to fail. There have been some scandals over the past several years that gives me angst and my local bank on Lake Avenue and Federal is closing in May.

One of the problems they had was Wells Fargo’s scandalous practice of billing customers for unauthorized accounts could send a former top executive to prison and already has saddled her with millions of dollars in fines. Under an agreement announced Wednesday in the California federal courts, Carrie Tolstedt, the longtime head of Wells Fargo’s retail banking division, agreed to plead guilty to obstructing a government examination of the bank’s misconduct. Tolstedt, 63, faces up to 16 months in prison, a $100,000 fine and three years of supervised release, according to her plea agreement.

So, no matter how safe you are, your bank could collapse.

Read about it...

Check your Bank Statement

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Is the entire world out to rip you off? It's bad enough when a bank pays you $0.04 on your checking account. Some days it certainly seems that the average Joe does not have a chance.

Now a Lake Worth Wells Fargo employee has been arrested for stealing money from depositor accounts.

Wells Fargo SNAFU

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Wells Fargo says the snafu is a "security breach" of some sort because customers got other's bank statements.

I'm not so sure that this is totally true as last month Wells Fargo lost one of my business accounts. When I called them about it, they couldn't even find me in their system, not my social security number or anything about me. I have a total of 5 accounts there that I write on. It took 4 business days going into the bank to finally get it straightened out. I had to prove I was who I said I was and that I ever had an account, not the other way around.

I personally believe it started with the conversion of moving Wachovia accounts over to Wells Fargo but we'll never really find out.

Lepa was Leaping

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Bob Lepa is a public figure. He is a stock broker and an Associate Vice President of Wells Fargo Advisors a financial firm, a person guarding your investments. He is a member of the Lake Worth BOARD OF TRUSTEES EMPLOYEES’ RETIREMENT SYSTEM, serving a 3 year term. Why then would an educated man such as Mr. Lepa stoop so low at a public meeting to utter an audible obscenity towards someone taking his photograph? He is in the public arena and there really isn't any right to privacy in public places.

Joakim Noah, basketball player with the NBA Bulls, was just fined $50,000 for an homophobic slur. Kobe Bryant was fined $100,000 for the same. Professional sports have stringent civility rules. When residents serve on city boards, they should conduct themselves professionally especially towards the public and the commission they serve.

Mr. Lepa did not want to be photographed so I have X'd out his face with X's and O's. I have to send him lots of love because my cousin is a friend of his on Facebook.

P.S. What about some anger management classes?

Wachovia, Drug Money Laundering and the Deal

When I moved back to Florida, I first opened an account at The Mall Bank on Palm Beach Lakes Blvd. This bank was eventually acquired by First Union. I then became a First Union customer. In 2001, The First Union Bank made a stock swap deal and bought Wachovia Bank keeping the name Wachovia. At the end of 2008, Wells Fargo was given federal stimulus in the amount of $25 billion and then bought Wachovia for $15.1 billion on an all stock merger. So, here I am, all these years, affiliated with the same bank, sort of.

Wachovia has always been a conservative bank paying very little interest to its customers. It has been rated as a safe bank, getting 4 stars from Bankrate.com, in spite of its risky loan portfolio. All along and unbeknown to anyone, there were some executives involved in some heavy duty hanky panky and padding their wallets even more by being part of a criminal money laundering scheme of Mexican drug profits. Can it get more criminal than this? It's no wonder we can't close the border.

The Feds have been on this case for the last 3 years and have now cut a deal with Wachovia—pay back the $160 million plus a $50 million fine and we won’t prosecute you! So, what has happened here, the citizens of the United States are once again picking up the tab and the crooks get off free! This, as well as other conditions, must be met within one year. Only in America.

Charles Steel, deputy director of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said, “The integrity of our financial system is at stake.” Was he joking?

Bailed Out banks in Capital Purchase Program

List of Failed Banks