Over at the Puget Sound Business Journal, reporter Kirsten Grind posted an interesting story today on their recently-launched BizTalk blog: Crackdown on HomeStreet Bank comes as a surprise
Washington state regulators don’t seem to have much patience these days for our struggling community banks and are increasingly slapping them with cease-and-desist orders to force a turnaround at the institutions.
On Friday, not one, but two of our banks said they were being held on a tighter leash by regulators, including Seattle-based HomeStreet Bank.
For anyone who’s counting, we now have six banks statewide that are working under stricter regulatory rules. That’s a lot, by the way. It wasn’t so long ago that the state had no struggling banks and a cease-and-desist order was something out of the 1980s savings and loan crisis lore.
The post goes on to mention some good news for HomeStreet: increasing mortgage volume and deposits.
If you’d like to discuss the HomeStreet issue in further detail, be sure to check out the forum thread started earlier today by a HomeStreet customer, who writes:
I switched over to Homestreet about a year and a half ago when I decided not to support the large, failing and decidedly insolvent (without tax dollars) bank that I had been using (BOA). A lot of my decision was based on reading their CEOs repudiation of risky loan making and guarantees that Homestreet had not engaged in any of that behavior.
Imagine my disappointment when this nonsense showed up in my mailbox.
Personally, I’ve been doing my primary banking through a local credit union (Prevail) for about the last six years now, and have found the experience to be quite satisfying. Perhaps the stories just aren’t hitting my inbox, but I haven’t heard of any of the local credit unions receiving C&Ds or being in danger of going under…
softwarengineer » May 18, 2009 at 2:54 pm
HERE’S APRETTY GOOD ARTICLE ON WHY CREDIT UNIONS ARE BETTER THAN BANKS
I agree with most of it, except the interest paid part. I’ve found the anomalous banks offer higher MM/CD rates than credit unions, but no free lunch here, when it comes to risk.
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/smartspending/archive/2009/01/06/10-reasons-why-credit-unions-rule.aspx?CommentPosted=true&PageIndex=3
Angie » May 18, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Think about it for half a minute and of course credit unions are going to be the better choice for their customers. They’re non-profits, which means that they’re not doing everything within their power to pick your pockets.
Remember that banks are for-profit institutions, which are bound by law to maximize shareholder value. How do they do that? Interest rates less favorable for the customers, for savings and for loans; strong incentive to maximize fees; intentionally designing policies and systems so that customers incur those fees.
I’d banked at a credit union for over a decade when, for convenience’s sake, I opened an account at the BofA’s branch right near my house. I was so incredibly disgusted by the predatory policies and fees that I closed the account within about 3 months. Since when is a credit card “overdraft protection”? It was awful.
Ray Pepper » May 18, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I switched over to Chase and got 100.00 literally 7 days after I opened our new accounts. The reason I did this?
Well appears Venture Bank blew their bankroll by holding onto long with FRE and FNM and rode it to virtually 0. After I saw the “cease and desist” order from the FDIC and listening to their town hall meeting I was so disgusted by listening to the CEO and CFO constantly blaming everything on Bernanke and Paulson while taking no blame.
Not to mention they wouldn’t answer my questions presented with any facts. “We have seen this before and we will see it again.” I blurted out……….” I don’t think you have and WE never will again.”
Shut em down …….! They will find no buyer!
http://www.thenewstribune.com/business/story/720806.html
Vellebue Renter » May 18, 2009 at 11:35 pm
RE: softwarengineer @ 1 –
What’s this have to do with Immigration?
Let me guess, banks are in trouble because of illegals, and Credit Unions only take new customers that can prove U.S. Citizenship. Right?
Ed » May 20, 2009 at 10:54 pm
In Spokane, we closed all of our B of A accounts and moved to a locally run credit union. Service has been very good. We’ll stick to the credit union, and may be a local bank or two. We are not going back to the “too big to fail” national failures like B of A.