Savings question

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this.

Question is, what is more secure. any bank of Federal Credit Union?

After looking at credit crisis and situations at the banks like IndyMac, I was wondering if my CDs are safe any where in USA. I have few CDs in North West Federal Credit Union, but they also deal in Mortgages !!!, are they safe? are they still healthy? Why Morgage crisis did not hurt Credit Unions yet?

[llecs]

I suppose if your were to look at the survivability of a martgage lender, you'd want to look at their books, esp. their balance sheet and their P&L (to see how much they wrote off). Banks and CUs are required to publish this info and is easily found on their website. If a bank is publicly traded, you can find it on their quarterly report online.

[Anonymous]

FDIC protects savings under $100K for most banks

The National Credit Union Association - for credit unions

IMO- Credit Unions have been shielded more by:

1. Better lending practices

2. Have lots of cash

3. Member loyalty

Right now I would NOT put $ in any bank- I fully expect many more banks to fail over the next few months. I have moved all of my unisured $ out,  my CU is very happy about this.

Message Edited by Timothy on 07-14-2008 07:35 AM

[Anonymous]

Lately we've been putting in EXACTLY what is due in the bank and then paying the bills. There's an extra 100 bucks in there for misc charges that might show up. As far as savings, its in MY safe in MY house. I like to keep it around it's not like there's much in it anyways haha....

[granny031350]

according to CNBC some of those on the "watch" list are 5th/3rd/  Comerica, WaMu, National City, Flagstar.  Those that were exposed to mortgages more than others. 

[Anonymous]

Found this http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/dollardiva/20001204a.asp It seems that Credit Union's don't do business to make profit. for them it is for providing service. I hope they don't make foolish decisions like other so called *profit making* banks.

[Anonymous]

Last night Cramer was saying there are several banks skating on thin ice. INDY MAC is the tip of the iceberg.

[Anonymous]

Agree 100% 

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cobra19 wrote:

Last night Cramer was saying there are several banks skating on thin ice. INDY MAC is the tip of the iceberg.

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[TangMeister]

Well...yes and no. Big banks also routinely keep lots of off-balance sheet assets to expand their lending. For instance, right now Citigroup has about $1.1 Trillion of said off-the-books assets lurking out there.

The last round of them pulling those types of assets back on their balance sheets, in the past 10 months or so, amounted to $100 billion, generating $7 billion in losses from credit/liquidity guarantees. CDOs, etc... anyone?

In a nutshell, you really can't trust what they tell you they have and don't have, on their filings and public books. It's simply not the entire story, though it's perfectly legal in todays world. Remember Enron?

I get a lot of my financial info from Mish's discussions on his website/blog globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com. The above specifics on Citigroup are a paraphrase of info he's provided. He's the man!

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@llecs wrote:

I suppose if your were to look at the survivability of a martgage lender, you'd want to look at their books, esp. their balance sheet and their P&L (to see how much they wrote off). Banks and CUs are required to publish this info and is easily found on their website. If a bank is publicly traded, you can find it on their quarterly report online.

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[Anonymous]

Timothy, do you mean to say you have liquidated your brokerage accounts? Or cashed in mutual funds and put any non-retirement into a money market or online high-interest savings, or Cd's?