Is Your Money Safe?
There are between 90 and 150 banks on the FDIC Bank Watch List. Is yours on it? Mine is.
I bank at WAMU, so I’ve been keeping watch of the headlines about the state of uncertainty that the bank is in - “Wamu credit concerns grow,” “Wamu Falls Third Day as Investors Focus on Funding,” “Will the Fed Have to Rescue Wamu?”
You know that you don’t know whether WaMu is on the list. Your point out later that the FDIC doesn’t share the list…
In fact, the FDIC doesn’t even share its watch list, though the news, other rating services, and, in the case of Indymac, public servant politicians provide customers the transparency that is needed.
Oh, so you know from other people that have told you? Well, Schumer caused the bank run. That’s certainly what was needed. A company that could have weathered a downturn went out of business because of a politician’s “transparency”. The majority of people who withdrew their money had no reason to as it was protected by the FDIC. Sure, the bank was in trouble, but I don’t think anyone should be complimented for this leak.
But more to the point was that IndyMac wasn’t on the FDIC watch list until June. And I can tell you for a fact that as of March 31, neither was WaMu. How do I know? Because WaMu has $320 billion in assets while all the banks on the list as of March 31 had combined assets of $26 billion. We won’t know until the end of August how much that number has gone up, but I’m willing to bet WaMu won’t be on the list and the number will be less than $320 billion. Why? Because my friends who have parents in the banking industry are saying to buy WaMu stock. Even before ToscaFund came out yesterday and said they bought 6% of the company, they were saying WaMu is not in bad shape. Everyone just talks about them cause they’re the biggest. My feeling is that it’s financial reporters cheering for the big crash that will make their careers. (If it bleeds, it leads…)
