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In all of 2008, 40 banking institutions failed - 25 banks and 15 credit unions. So far in 2009, 72 institutions have either been closed or taken over by regulators, including 7 banks just this past weekend. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)'s troubled bank list, now at 305, has more than doubled from last year's total, when 117 banks were listed. Which begs the questions: Where and why are all these institutions failing, and how many more closures will we see by year's end? Failures by the Numbers Analysis of this year's bank/credit union failures (see interactive map) reveals some interesting facts: * Total Failed Banks: 64 * Total Failed Credit Unions: 8 o Top States For Failures: o Georgia - 16 banks o Illinois - 12 banks o California - 8 banks, 3 credit unions o Florida - 3 banks * Largest Failure BankUnited, Coral Gables, FL., $12.8 billion in assets, * Total Cost to FDIC Insurance Fund: $13.553 billion

Online crime is increasingly hitting small and mid-size companies in the U.S., draining those entities' bank accounts through fraudulent transfers. The problem has gotten so bad that a financial services group recently sent out a warning about the trend, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) issued an alert today. "In the past six months, financial institutions, security companies, the media and law enforcement agencies are all reporting a significant increase in funds transfer fraud involving the exploitation of valid banking credentials belonging to small and medium sized businesses," says a bulletin sent on Aug. 21 to member financial institutions by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, (FS-ISAC). The FS-ISAC is part of the government-private industry umbrella working with the Department of Homeland Security and Treasury Department to share information about critical threats to the country's infrastructure. The member-only alert described the problem and told its members to implement many of the precautions and monitoring currently used to detect consumer bank and credit card fraud.

Is your bank on the list?

Failed Banks Thirty-six banks have failed this year, up from the 25 that shut down in 2008, which included Washington Mutual, the largest bank failure in US history. While the banks that have closed this year are not as large as WaMu, there have been some substantial banks that failed with assets in the billions. Click on to find out which of them rank as the 10 largest failures so far in 2009. Source: FDIC Posted June 4, 2009 »Slideshow: Largest Bankruptcies »Slideshow: World's Safest Banks

Six federal agencies issued a set of frequently asked questions (FAQs) today to help financial institutions, creditors, users of consumer reports, and issuers of credit cards and debit cards comply with federal regulations on identity theft and discrepancies in changes of address. The "Red Flags and Address Discrepancy Rules," which implement sections of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act), were issued jointly on November 9, 2007, by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The rules require financial institutions and creditors to develop and implement written Identity Theft Prevention Programs and require issuers of credit cards and debit cards to assess the validity of notifications of changes of address. The rules also provide guidance for users of consumer reports regarding reasonable policies and procedures to employ when consumer reporting agencies send them notices of address discrepancy. The agencies' staff have jointly developed answers to these FAQs to provide guidance on numerous aspects of the rules, including which types of entities and accounts are covered; establishment and administration of an Identity Theft Prevention Program; address validation requirements applicable to card issuers; and the obligations of users of consumer reports upon receiving a notice of address discrepancy.

Americans are about to re-learn that bank deposit insurance isn't free, even as Washington is doing its best to delay the coming bailout. The banking system and the federal fisc would both be better off in the long run if the political class owned up to the reality. We're referring to the federal deposit insurance fund, which has been shrinking faster than reservoirs in the California drought. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported late last week that the fund that insures some $4.5 trillion in U.S. bank deposits fell to $10.4 billion at the end of June, as the list of failing banks continues to grow. The fund was $45.2 billion a year ago, when regulators told us all was well and there was no need to take precautions to shore up the fund.