No FDIC bank failures for three weeks in a row

The FDIC reports bank failures on Friday evenings, but has not reported any since Friday, December 12, 2008. It could be that the holdays interfere with the process, but I would not bet on it. In any case, it will be interesting to see if any failures are reported tomorrow evening.

The FDIC does not give any advance notice of bank closures. In fact, it is usually a state banking regulator who does the closure and then FDIC is "named receiver" and then takes over and promptly arranges to sell as much deposits and assets as it can to a healthier bank.

The basic idea is to totally avoid old-fashioned "runs" on banks and pre-arrange the assumption of deposits by a healthy bank before the closure is even announced. In other words, there should be no disruption of service and no need for customers to lose any sleep.

There were 25 banks that were closed by regulators this year, which is a lot compared to a normal year, but miniscule considering that all that has happened this year and the fact that there are over 8,000 banks and savings associations in the U.S.

-- Jack Krupansky