Bank Deals Blog: Bank Health

The FDIC and NCUA recently released their reports of the third quarter health of the institutions they insure. They also released the 2020 Third Quarter Call Reports of all insured institutions. We use these reports to derive our financial health grades for each institution. We have finished importing this data, and all of the health grades for banks and credit unions have been updated to reflect the September 30, 2020 reports.

You can view the latest health ratings of your bank or credit union in our Bank Health Ratings...

The financial technology company (fintech) known as Beam has made news due to many of its banking customers reporting that they have been unable to withdraw their money for months. Beam attracted attention in the last year due to its high yield bank account that’s accessed through the Beam mobile app. Like many fintechs, Beam claimed to be working with banks that actually hold the customer deposits. Through these banks, it was claimed that the accounts offered FDIC coverage. The problem that Beam customers have been experiencing is shedding light...

Kansas state regulators closed Almena State Bank late Friday, October 23. This is the fourth bank to fail in 2020, and it’s the third bank to fail since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March. Like the first and second bank that failed during the pandemic, Almena State Bank had major problems long before this year. According to the FDIC press release:

Even though the pandemic may not be to blame for this bank’s failure, it should be noted that this failure occurred only one week after the previous bank failure (the...

Last Friday Ally Financial released its third quarter earnings report, and Q3 profits were strong and far exceeded analysts’ estimates. A few details from Ally’s earnings report may interest Ally Bank deposit customers. First, if you have a lot of your savings at Ally Bank, the Q3 earnings report indicates a financially healthy bank. According to this American Banker article on Ally:

Auto loans contributed to large gains in both revenue and profit. Compared to Q3 2019, adjusted total net revenue was up 4%, and adjusted earnings per share was up...

Florida state regulators closed First City Bank of Florida late Friday, October 16. This is the third bank to fail in 2020, and it’s the second bank to fail since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March. Like the first bank that failed during the pandemic, First City Bank of Florida had major problems long before this year. According to the FDIC press release:

The pandemic will likely result in a large increase in loan defaults and other conditions that will stress banks. Help from the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, the FDIC...

We have finished updating our financial health grades based on the first quarter call report data that the FDIC and NCUA released. In the past, these updates have been done about six weeks earlier. One thing that delayed the update was that both the FDIC and NCUA delayed their release by about a month due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In normal times, the FDIC and NCUA release the Q1 call reports in late May. We had an additional delay due to technical issues involving the importing of the call reports...

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has just begun. Loan delinquencies and defaults will surely increase due to the forced business shutdowns. The Fed, Congress and the White House have provided significant support which should help, but there still remains uncertainty about how the economy and the financial system will fare. As we learned from the 2008 financial crisis, when the financial system is under stress, bank failures rise dramatically.

Health Ratings Based on Latest FDIC and NCUA Call Reports

DepositAccounts.com Bank Health Ratings page

Banks that are most likely to...

The stress on the financial system from the COVID-19 pandemic has just started. The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Government have begun massive new programs to support the economy and the financial system, and hopefully, that will prevent a wave of bankruptcies and bank failures. Nevertheless, as we saw after the 2008 Financial Crisis, these programs and policies can only do so much. A large number of banks still failed after the 2008 Financial Crisis. For savers, a much worse outcome than a bank failure is finding out that your...

West Virginia state regulators closed The First State Bank this Friday, April 3rd. This is the second bank to fail in 2020, and it’s the first bank to fail in the coronavirus crisis. Even though this bank failed in the coronavirus crisis, it had major financial problems long before the pandemic started. Based on the 2019 Q4 bank call reports from the FDIC (the latest available), this bank had the highest Texas Ratio of any bank in the nation (1,050%). Any bank with a Texas Ratio greater than 100% is...

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that unanimously passed the Senate has a few little-known provisions that will likely be of interest to savers. The well-known provisions have been discussed at length by the media. These include the $1,200 tax rebates to most individuals, expanded unemployment benefits, billions of dollars for state and local governments and hospitals, and billions of dollars in loans for small and large businesses. The total cost of this package is close to $2 trillion. The bill is expected to pass the House...