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POSTED
ON BY Ken Tumin
As this Forbes article describes, E*Trade is being hit by the subprime mess. Between gloomy announcements and analyst downgrades, there are worries that E*Trade could go out of business. This AP article from Yahoo mentioned that half of E*Trade Bank's deposit accounts representing about $15 billion are higher than the FDIC's $100K threshold. With the bad publicity, the analyst is concerned about the effects of these depositors moving their money elsewhere.
The FDIC data as of 6/30/07 on E*Trade Bank does show 54,810 deposit accounts with more than $100K. Those accounts make up more than $14.7 billion in deposits. However, $27.8 billion deposits out of a total $33.8 billion are estimated to be insured.
I think it's always a good idea to stay below the FDIC limits regardless of the bank. There are many ways to extend FDIC coverage past $100K. For more info, please refer to this post.
As we learned with the closure of Netbank (see post), there's not much to worry about if you keep under the FDIC limits. For more facts about FDIC deposit insurance, please refer to this FDIC article .
This situation with E*Trade reminds me of what Countrywide went through in August (see post). The depositors who stuck with Countrywide Bank have been rewarded with yields far above yields of other banks. It'll be interesting to see if E*Trade will be forced to raise their savings and CD rates to keep up deposits. Also similar to Countrywide, E*Trade's President has released a message today to their customers trying to soothe fears. In the message, E*Trade's President stated that "we continue to be well capitalized by regulatory standards. As a matter of fact, we could absorb an immediate write down in excess of $1 billion and still remain well capitalized."
The FDIC data as of 6/30/07 on E*Trade Bank does show 54,810 deposit accounts with more than $100K. Those accounts make up more than $14.7 billion in deposits. However, $27.8 billion deposits out of a total $33.8 billion are estimated to be insured.
I think it's always a good idea to stay below the FDIC limits regardless of the bank. There are many ways to extend FDIC coverage past $100K. For more info, please refer to this post.
As we learned with the closure of Netbank (see post), there's not much to worry about if you keep under the FDIC limits. For more facts about FDIC deposit insurance, please refer to this FDIC article .
This situation with E*Trade reminds me of what Countrywide went through in August (see post). The depositors who stuck with Countrywide Bank have been rewarded with yields far above yields of other banks. It'll be interesting to see if E*Trade will be forced to raise their savings and CD rates to keep up deposits. Also similar to Countrywide, E*Trade's President has released a message today to their customers trying to soothe fears. In the message, E*Trade's President stated that "we continue to be well capitalized by regulatory standards. As a matter of fact, we could absorb an immediate write down in excess of $1 billion and still remain well capitalized."
