There’s Still a Safe Places in Banks for Deposits

Annalists have begun warning that the huge federal bailout of financial instructions may not save some blanks. Hundreds may go out of business or be taken over by other, stronger institutions. Perhaps so, but that is not something that should concern the vast majority of Americans. If some shaky banks do go under as a result of imprudent loan practices, it will be nothing the nations have not seen before. During the saving and the loan shake up of the 1990s, more than 800 institutions failed. Those with deposits in them were covered, for the most part, by federal deposit insurance.

And if some federally insured banks don’t make it through the current up heavily, virtually all of their customers will be covered, too. Some banks already have failed, as local residents know. Last month, a bank in southern West Virginia failed, but its local branches were purchased and kept open by a healthy Martins Ferry bank. Warning about wave of bank failures, then, should not worry area residents. If anything, the outlook is that their deposits will be safe, but, quite possibly, handled by a more secure financial institution.

In cases of absolute failure, few depositors with money in federally insured banks have anything about which to worry. Federal insurance in the past covered accounts of up to $100,000 and now the limit has been increased to $250,000. That certainly is enough to reassure the vast majority of Ohio Valley residents. What Americans need to remember in terms of banking is that this is not 1929 all over again. Safeguards put in place since then make a bank, not a shoebox under the bed, the safest place to keep our money.