As the economy has soured, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the deposit insurance fund. It has fallen into the red.

Blech...Someone want to tell me how the fark I'm supposed to masturbate to this?

9?? not bad.

mmm..government zombie banks.

Unknown_Poltroon: 9?? not bad.

Um, they were all holdings of the same bank holding company. Calling them 9 separate banks is a stretch, really. Exact same website for each.

Another article I read said that while foreclosures on the Cal National books quintupled in the last year, the real problem was the fact that the bank had huge holdings in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred stock which has tanked.

If you're a bank making really risky loans for resale, you're not hedging your bets by owning part of the company that's buying the crappy loans from you. Senior management FAIL.

Article says they timed their entry to all 9 HQs based on 615pm Pacific. Is it at all normal to have staff at a bank headquarters at 8PM on a Friday?

I haz a sad for the San Diego National Bank piece of this octopus, they had a really nice logo:



and a really big-ass whale mural on teir building downtown;


but still, as long as they keep the giant whale mural I'm ok with it.

Big time senior management fail, giving shiate loans in Eastlake Village, and then backing it with Fannie and Freddie

margarito bandito: Article says they timed their entry to all 9 HQs based on 615pm Pacific. Is it at all normal to have staff at a bank headquarters at 8PM on a Friday?

Well, obviously the banks knew what was happening. And this is typically how the FDIC shuts down banks-Friday after closing, they move in, the other bank that buys their assets changes all the signs and shiat, and the bank opens Monday morning under the new bank's name. The goal is to make the transformation as smooth as possible, so there isn't a bank run with people pulling all their money out.

Bonzo_1116: I haz a sad for the San Diego National Bank piece of this octopus, they had a really nice logo:



and a really big-ass whale mural on teir building downtown;


but still, as long as they keep the giant whale mural I'm ok with it.

Big time senior management fail, giving shiate loans in Eastlake Village, and then backing it with Fannie and Freddie

Additional sadz for this bank.

I just got back from getting new tires at a local indy tire store...turns out the owner is all pissy about this, as his company uses San Diego National (and the local charity foundation he volunteers with uses them too.)

Since the dude is a Ayn Rand cheerleader, it was cool to watch him try to blame obvious corporate business greed-fail on "Chicago corruption". Yeah, FBOP is based in Illinois, but I'm not seeing that make much of a difference.

He even busted out with the "but the banks were forced to make those skeevy loans."

I recommend listening to this episode of This American Life for a good idea of what really happens when a bank is taken over by the FDIC.

Bonzo_1116: I haz a sad for the San Diego National Bank piece of this octopus, they had a really nice logo:



and a really big-ass whale mural on teir building downtown;


but still, as long as they keep the giant whale mural I'm ok with it.

I just hope the Japanese don't attack it.

Goddamnit, I just switched to Cal National because Chase (now holding my former WaMu account) blows donkey ass. Now we'll see if USBank does the same. I'm not holding out much hope.

//save the credit union speech, I live in LA and driving distance matters