While everyone is thinking snow and (un)employment ... this is just a reminder that the weather is nice in Puerto Rico. It is very possible that the FDIC will close a bank there tomorrow, see: Reports on Possible Imminent Bank Failures . Also Dow Jones had some interesting speculation today ... Read more

From Renae Merle at the WaPo: FDIC to test principal reduction for underwater borrowers The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is developing a program to test whether cutting the mortgage balances of distressed borrowers who owe significantly more than their homes are worth is an effective method for s ... Read more

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has scheduled two more loan auctions, covering more than $65 million in assets.   The FDIC is offering 13 commercial and residential real estate participations, totaling $60.9 million, that originated with Security Real Estate Services of Macon, G ... R ... Read more

The FDIC released the Q3 Quarterly Banking Profile today. The FDIC listed 552 banks with $345.9 billion in assets as “problem” banks in Q3, up from 416 banks with $299.8 billion in assets in Q2, and 252 and $159.4 billion in assets in Q4 2008. Note: Not all problem banks will fail - ... Re ... Read more

A comment concerning the FDIC - As of June 30 the rates being charged banks have increased substantially. Risk 1 category went to 12 basis points from 5, risk 2, 17 basis points, risk 3, 35 basis points, and risk 5, 50 basis points. Additionally, a 5 basis point special assessment is being charged o ... Read more

Form Bloomberg: WL Ross, Carlyle Group Said to Make Bid for BankUnited Assets WL Ross & Co. and private-equity firms including Carlyle Group made a bid to buy BankUnited Financial Corp. assets out of receivership from the government , a person familiar with the matter said. The firms, whic ... Read more

The FDIC released the Quarterly Banking Profile for Q4 today. Here is an excerpt from the FDIC press release : Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported a net loss of $26.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, a decline of ... Read more

Previously I expressed some thoughts on nationalization in The Nationalization Train Has Left The Station . Greg Mankiw suggests wait a minute, this is just nomenclature as the FDIC shuttering banks would itself be nationalization. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism discusses this in Greg Mankiw in ... Read more

For each bank failure, reader Soylent Green is People has been writing a Haiku. Here are the ones yesterday ... From the FDIC: FirstBank Financial Services, McDonough, GA Georgia on my mind... First Bank, number seven gone Still no end in sight. From the FDIC: Alliance Bank, Culve ... Rea ... Read more

From the FDIC: FDIC Adopts Assessments for Insured Institutions for 2009 The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today voted to adopt a final rule increasing risk-based assessment rates uniformly by 7 basis points (7 cents for every $100 of deposits), on an annual ... Read more