Bank Resources:
Historical Interest Rate Data provided by Federal Reserve
Historical Prime Rate Changes provided by Money-Rates.com
Bank Ratings (financial strength):
The FDIC provides insurance coverage for depositors up to $100,000.00, but any depositor caught up in a FDIC bank failure may end up waiting weeks or even months before receiving their principal payout. Consequently it is financially prudent to review a bank's strength and financial condition before placing a deposit there. The FDIC provides an excellent tool for finding information about a bank. Potential depositors should pay careful attention to the following items listed on the FDIC web site:
(1) Check any enforcement actions by the FDIC against the bank.
(2) Check the total assets - banks with less than $500 million in assets are much more likely to be purchased or to fail bringing incovenience to depositors.
(3) Check the % increase in total assets - does it appear that the bank is growing too fast? a verifiable trend is that banks which grow assets and deposits at too high of a rate suffer from more growing pains and more customer service complaints.
(4) Finally if reviewing financial data is not your idea of entertainment consumers can order a detailed bank report with ratings and explanations from VeriBank.com for $10 per institution.
Posted 5/1/08