A fresh breath from a member of our forums, kevin_in_denver, tells us how we should think about turning to local credit unions.
His post, Credit Unions are safe, sound and local!, highlights some of the benefits of credit unions. Â
From the post:
With everything that’s been going so wrong in the economy, it’s nice to let people know [...]

In an effort to keep Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C 3.77 11/21/08) afloat, the US government announced a plan to make available guarantees on over $300 billion of troubled mortgages and other assets after a week were Citibank lost more then 60% of its value.
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Breakdown: The plan
·         $20 billion cash infusion via Treasury Dept
·         [...]

On Friday, the FDIC and Georgia regulators shut down the third Georgia-based bank this year. The Community Bank, based in Loganville, Ga. became the 20th nation bank failure this year and was followed by two bank failures in California, making the total number of bank closures this 22.

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Breakdown:  The Community Bank Â
·         Total assets of [...]

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp was appointed receiver when the Fed was forced to shut down two large banks in California. The banks became the latest victims of acute distress in the real-estate market in that state.
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Latest two failures brings the total number of banking failures this year to 22.
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U.S. Bancorp has acquired the operations [...]

Today, Monday, November 10, 2008 — we have been having great news from everywhere.  Circuit City announcing bankruptcy, another $40 billion for AIG (guess it’s good news for them?), and now we have 2 more bank failures.
CNN Money reports, 2 more banks go belly-up, as Franklin Bank (of Houston) and Security Pacific Bank (of California) [...]

In the US we have the FDIC which insures deposits up to $250,000 (now, it’s up from $100,000 as of a recent bill).  This is per depositor, per bank.
What does the UK have?
The UK insures their money with the FSCS, Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
If you’re unclear about the details, the FSCS insures payments will be [...]

In the last two days we have seen dramatic action at yet another two banks, with National City (NCC 2.08 10/24/08) being bought by PNC, and now Alpha Bank and Trust of Alpharetta, Georgia becoming the 16h Bank this year to be seized, by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance.
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In the past two months, [...]

We all secretly worry about how safe our money is.  After all, why do we use banks?  If money were very safe at home, wouldn’t we just want to hold onto our own cash?
There are multiple definitions of “safe” when it comes to money.  

It won’t be stolen
It will be worth the same in the [...]

Many have argued against the passage of the government bailout bill, never the less it has passed in the US. House of Representatives today. House members are being quoted as saying, there is no liquidity in the market. This bill will help the banks get back to banking.

Most of the voices against the action [...]

Depending on where you read, either Citigroup is currently leading the initiative, or Wells Fargo is.
Either way, it’s going to be yet another interesting week with Fortis on the chopping block recently.  The last word I had read, was that each of the three governments will be buying out 49% of the local operating Fortis [...]

WaMu becomes the 13th bank to fail in 2008, and the largest bank failure on record based on assets. The closets was Continental Illinois who’s 40 billion dollar failure occurred in May 1984
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However one man’s failure (garbage) is another man’s success (gold). This is the second major acquisition for JPMorgan Chase this year. After the [...]

Everyone may be breathing a sigh of relief after the market closed at a reasonable level this past week. Â
Bank failures continue to occur, as Ameribank, Inc. of Northfork, West Virginia has:
http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/press/2008/pr08082.html
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Great article written from an inside perspective on what happens when a bank fails:
http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/jun/08/anatomy_bank_failure_when_liquidators_comes_callin/
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