by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2009 08:11:00 PM

This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks.

Changes and comments from surferdude808:

Since last week, the Unofficial Problem Bank List shrank by a net three institutions to 460. Aggregate assets decreased slightly to $297.8 billion from $298.6 billion.

New additions include two Cease & Desist orders issued by the OTS against Lincoln FSB of Nebraska, Lincoln ($371.3m) and Waterfield Bank, Germantown, MD ($217.3m). Also, the Federal Reserve issued a Prompt Corrective Action order against San Joaquin Bank, Bakersfield, CA ($832.8m) on October 5th, which was has been operating under a Cease & Desist order since April 9, 2009.

The removals include the failures last Friday – Warren Bank, Jennings State Bank, and Southern Colorado National Bank. The OCC terminated a Formal Agreement against Pacific National Bank, Miami, FL on September 29th.

The other deletion was Venture Bank which was misidentified with the bank of the same name based out of Washington that failed on September 11th. We were notified of the error by a reader and greatly appreciate the assistance in maintaining the accuracy of this list.

The list is compiled from regulator press releases or from public news sources (see Enforcement Action Type link for source). The FDIC data is released monthly with a delay, and the Fed and OTC data is more timely. The OCC data is a little lagged. Credit: surferdude808.

See description below table for Class and Cert (and a link to FDIC ID system).

For a full screen version of the table click here.

The table is wide - use scroll bars to see all information!

NOTE: Columns are sortable - click on column header (Assets, State, Bank Name, Date, etc.)





Class: from FDIC

The FDIC assigns classification codes indicating an institution's charter type (commercial bank, savings bank, or savings association), its chartering agent (state or federal government), its Federal Reserve membership status (member or nonmember), and its primary federal regulator (state-chartered institutions are subject to both federal and state supervision). These codes are:

N National chartered commercial bank supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

SM State charter Fed member commercial bank supervised by the Federal Reserve

NM State charter Fed nonmember commercial bank supervised by the FDIC

SA State or federal charter savings association supervised by the Office of Thrift Supervision

SB State charter savings bank supervised by the FDIC

Cert: This is the certificate number assigned by the FDIC used to identify institutions and for the issuance of insurance certificates. Click on the number and the Institution Directory (ID) system "will provide the last demographic and financial data filed by the selected institution".

by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2009 05:23:00 PM

From California State Controller John Chiang: Controller Releases September 2009 Cash Report

State Controller John Chiang today released his monthly report covering California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements in September. For the first three months of the fiscal year, total General Fund revenue was nearly $1.1 billion below the recently amended 2009-10 Budget Act estimates.

“Revenues more than $1 billion under estimates and recent adverse court rulings are dealing a major blow to a budget that is barely 10-weeks old,” said Controller Chiang. “While there are encouraging signs that California’s economy is preparing for a comeback, the recession continues to drag State revenues down. I urge lawmakers and the Governor to prepare for more difficult decisions ahead.”
emphasis added

Here are the September 2009 financial statement and summary analysis.

Just add this to the pile of state budgets falling short ...

From Bloomberg: New York Income Tax Revenue Falls 36% in Year, Paterson Says

From Reuters: Massachusetts government to announce emergency budget cuts

by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2009 04:02:00 PM

While we wait for the FDIC, from Rolfe Winkler at Reuters: TARP deadbeats

Thirty-three TARP recipients missed a scheduled dividend payment to taxpayers last month, according to the Treasury Department, including 18 banks that missed a payment for the first time.
...
The 33 banks that missed dividend payments in August have received $4.5 billion of TARP money. The biggest is CIT. Previously it paid $44 million of dividends, but with a bankruptcy filing looking likely, Treasury’s $2.3 billion investment seems headed toward zero.

Market update:

The second graph is from Doug Short of dshort.com (financial planner): "Four Bad Bears".

Note that the Great Depression crash is based on the DOW; the three others are for the S&P 500.

by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2009 12:30:00 PM

From the BLS: Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

On the last business day of August, the number of job openings in the U.S. was little changed at a series low level of 2.4 million, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The hires rate was little changed and remained low at 3.1 percent in August. The total separations rate was little changed and remained low at 3.3 percent.

Note: The difference between JOLTS hires and separations is similar to the CES (payroll survey) net jobs headline numbers. Remember the CES (Current Employment Statistics, payroll survey) is for positions, the CPS (Current Population Survey, commonly called the household survey) is for people. See Jobs and the Unemployment Rate for a comparison of the two surveys.

The following graph shows job openings (yellow line), hires (blue Line), Quits (green bars) and Layoff, Discharges and other (red bars) from the JOLTS. Red and green added together equals total separations.

Unfortunately this is a new series and only started in December 2000.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

Notice that hires (blue line) and separations (red and green together) are pretty close each month. When the blue line is above total separations, the economy is adding net jobs, when the blue line is below total separations, the economy is losing net jobs.

According to the JOLTS report, there were 4.029 million hires in August, and 4.265 million separations, or 236 thousand net jobs lost.

I'm not sure if openings is predictive of future hires (the data set is limited), but openings at a series low can't be a positive. Separations have declined sharply, with fewer quits and layoffs, but hiring has not picked up.

As David Leonhardt noted in the NY Times last month: Wages Grow for Those With Jobs, New Figures Show

Try thinking of it this way: All of the unemployed people in the country are gathered in a huge gymnasium that’s been turned into a job search center. The fact that this recession is the worst in a generation means that there are many, many people in the gym. The fact that the economy is churning so slowly means that there is not much traffic into and out of the gym.

If you’re inside, you will have a hard time getting out.

by Calculated Risk on 10/09/2009 10:11:00 AM

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing that the bad loans occurred. It was an effort to keep prices from falling too fast. That’s a policy.”
Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee on recent FHA lending.

The quote is from David Streitfeld and Louise Story's article in the NY Times: U.S. Mortgage Backer May Need Bailout, Experts Say

The article covers the problems at the FHA, and includes this anecdote:

Like many Americans, Ms. [Bernadine Shimon] has recently been through some rough times. She lost a house to foreclosure, declared bankruptcy, got divorced and is now a single mother, teaching high school English in a Denver suburb.

She wanted a house but no lender would touch her. The Federal Housing Administration was more obliging. With the F.H.A. insuring her mortgage, Ms. Shimon was able to buy a $134,000 fixer-upper in August.
...
Any more than [3.5% down] and Ms. Shimon, 45, would still be a renter. As it was, she cashed in her retirement savings account to come up with the necessary funds. She did not have enough to spare for closing costs, so her mortgage broker arranged a deal where the charges were wrapped into the loan at the cost of a higher interest rate. She cried when the deal was done.

The house was empty and trashed. Slowly, she is trying to bring it back to life. She spent the first few weeks picking up garbage in the backyard.

Is Ms. Shimon a good bet? Even she has no easy answer. Her mortgage payment, $1,100, is half of what she takes home every month. It is not easy to make ends meet. Teachers can get laid off like everyone else.
emphasis added

Maybe Ms. Shimon will make it (I hope so). But according to the article she has no savings, and is spending half her take home income on just the mortgage payment. update

Maybe she can qualify for a loan modification! The HAMP guidelines are for loans not to exceed 31 percent of gross income. Update: It is not clear from the story the percentage of her gross income (the half is take home income). The FHA guidelines are that the payment-to-income ratio not exceed 31%, however, with all of the "compensating factors", it is possible that the FHA is insuring loans that the Obama Administration (through HAMP) has called "unaffordable". (ht TL)

And the NAR thinks Ms. Shimon will spend $10 of thousands of dollars fixing up her home over the next year? That is their argument for extending the "first-time" homebuyer tax credit (for anyone who hasn't owned for three years).

As Frank said, this is "a policy". But is it a good policy?