scott1961 said:Right. I bet they have brought in a bunch of new money with these rates.

Wachovia is also raising a huge amount of money with their CD promos (4.00% for 7 months and 4.25% for 12 months)
I went to my closest Wachovia branch the other day and there were 6 people waiting to open CDs,
so I went to another branch where there were five people waiting to open CDs,
so then I went home and opened the CD online. I guess I should have thought of that sooner

dolmar said:jayK said:There are rumors that Wells Fargo could potentially buy out IndyMac.

Why would Wells Want Indymac? Wells has a huge footprint in Los Angeles already and IndyMac is an LA based sub-prime lender. All the rumors I have read about or heard on CNBC if you even consider those creditable rumors state Wells Fargo has been eyeing investment banks as Wells has no investment bank division what so ever and Wells could leverage there AAA rating. Wells Fargo like BOA is a straight commercial bank and has no broker/investment bank division as both of them sub contract out there brokerage clearing business to 3rd party investment banks.

The rumors are because many of the investment are getting cheap enough it be very possible that Wells or BOA buy one of them as that would complement their business and allow them to get into the investment bank business which is a very high margin business for the brokers/banks.

Bank of America owns Banc of America securities.

comptalk said:Bank of America owns Banc of America securities.

Not really an investment bank. They clear there brokerage trades via Fidelity. They really do not underwrite anything. They are on a couple of syndicates just because of there size but are never leader or senior manager and that is where the money is in investment banking.

I just called to change my address on an existing CD and the rep offered me a 6 month CD at 4.25% APY.

Time to bite (as long as you are under FDIC limit) ???

Thrilla said:I have heard from people that actually went through a bank failure that it took over 2 years so I've heard both sides. Given the state of the US financial system at the moment, I'm not taking any chances of having my money tied up for two years.

That's FUD. It takes no time for your insured deposits to be repaid (as evidenced last year when NetBank was shutdown). It may take some time for un-insured amounts to be paid out (as frequently you will get a portion of money over the FDIC limit back) and that can obviously take time. But if you have only insured deposits you typically don't wait at all.

I haven't heard this from anyone.. I went through NetBank experience myself and if I wasn't reading these forums or financial press I probably wouldn't even know what happened, nor would access to my money have been affected for a second.

therivler1 said:Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., says federal regulators may not be ready to protect them and that a wave of IndyMac depositors withdrawing their funds could leave the bank "in a disastrous financial situation."
I think someone needs to take Senator Schumer aside and tell him how bank runs get started.

1. Schumer might have a point, but the number of people affected might be small. For example, TD Ameritrade sells brokered CDs. Supposed you buy an IndyMac CD through TD Ameritrade, and then another one through, say, E*Trade. You could easily end up being above the FDIC limits, without realizing so.

This can be especially true when the said CDs are on some kind of a promotion. E.g., TD Ameritrade sends you an e-mail w/ a special CD offer if you bring in at least 20K. But in that e-mail they don't tell you the name of the bank selling the CD. Of course, eventually they tell you the name, but you can end up easily overlooking that detail until AFTER you have invested.

2. I had some NetBank accounts when they failed, but I am still trying to understand how the whole process works. As far as I can tell, FDIC tries to make sure that banks don't fail by themselves. In other words, FDIC or whoever (thrift supervisor) comes in and declares the operations of a bank unsafe, and takes over well before the bank is unable to pay. FDIC does this to make sure that depositors don't get bounced payments due to bank's insolvency, because that is likely to create more panic.

Assume a couple of banks get to a stage at which FDIC decides to take over. While FDIC is busy with these couple of banks, for some reason, a couple of more actually fail. The FDIC might not have enough processing capacity (employees, infrastructure, etc) to handle the new failures, even though they might have the capital needed to cover the shortfall between the insured portion of the deposits and bank's assets.

Are there any FW members who were around during the S&L crisis. How soon did the deposits get paid out?

jayK said:There are rumors that Wells Fargo could potentially buy out IndyMac.

Link? And I certainly hope not!!!!

dolmar said:comptalk said:Bank of America owns Banc of America securities.Not really an investment bank. They clear there brokerage trades via Fidelity. They really do not underwrite anything. They are on a couple of syndicates just because of there size but are never leader or senior manager and that is where the money is in investment banking.In the first quarter, BoA ranked #1 in global equity and related, #3 in global MBS, #1 in global equity - US, #8 in global IPO's, #1 in global convertibles, #1 in US-market equity and related, #3 in US market common stock, #4 (tied) in US market IPOs, #6 in US market follow-ons, #1 in US market convertibles, #3 in overall US-market debt and equity, #3 in US market MBS, and #1 in US non-convertible preferreds, among other things; they were also #9 as financial advisor on completed deals with US targets. That is a major investment bank. How they clear retail trades is really not terribly important.

mnsweeps said:Thrilla said:I have heard from people that actually went through a bank failure that it took over 2 years so I've heard both sides. Given the state of the US financial system at the moment, I'm not taking any chances of having my money tied up for two years.

you get your money within 48 hrs..

A FDIC spokesman says that depositors have lost access for up to 6 days.

I do remember the person I was speaking with did indicate the funds that took two years to be returned were above the FDIC limit.