Deposits

No depositor should lose any money for a deposit of more than $100,000. ("FDIC limits make sense in principle," Market Beat, July 26.) The rules are very complicated. The FDIC coverage rules are not mentioned, much less explained, when you open or add to an account that may put you at risk. Banks only care about maximizing deposits. They have a direct financial interest in preventing you from spreading your deposits over more than one bank to maintain FDIC protection. As long as the financial lobby controls our banking laws, we will continue to see such behavior rewarded and the bank failure cycle repeated with innocent depositors and taxpayers being fleeced by the robber-barons of Wall Street.

ATHENS - Eva, a well-groomed pensioner, grasps her creamy white purse, glancing impatiently at her gold Cartier watch as she waits for the manager of an Athens bank. She is offered tea, cookies and orange juice, none of which the state bank usually provides, and none of which Eva accepts. "I'm concerned," says the 82-year-old, who declined to give her last name because she was involved in a private transaction. "I'm thinking of withdrawing all my savings. " Greek banks have been bleeding money since inconclusive elections this month, and the rise of a Marxist-Leninist leader bent on bustingBerlin'sausterity crusade, plunged the country into the biggest political crisis in decades and raised the specter of a devastating default.

B of A lost $1.6 billion in passbook and other basic deposits in its most recent quarter, according to bank filings with regulatory agencies. The 3.7% decline in basic deposits to $42.2 billion suggests that the prolonged financial troubles at California's largest bank might be affecting customer confidence, one banking analyst said. Bank of America's share of the basic, or "core," deposits among the five major California banks fell from 44.4% to 42.

City Nationa l Corp. shares were trading higher following the L.A. bank's earnings report saying  profit rose 17% during the first quarter, with deposits and assets each up 11%. The bank, which mainly serves businesses and wealthy individuals, earned $46.3 million, 86 cents a share, compared with $39.7 million, 74 cents a share, in the first quarter of 2011. Revenue was $276 million compared with $275 million a year earlier, but down 4% from the fourth quarter.

The Argentine central bank took the action, which will last 120 days, to stem increasing withdrawals and said it would analyze the situation at the end of the period. The measure affects about $800 million in private and state banks in the nation but had no immediate effect on the exchange market, which was closed for the weekend.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman William M. Isaac said this week that he hoped to make users of the packaged deposits "uncomfortable" by publicizing them. He cited Bank of America and Crocker National Bank, both of San Francisco, as among the institutions that had brokered funds on deposit at two banks that failed Feb. 8--West Valley Bank of Woodland Hills and Peoples Trust & Bank of Wartburg, Tenn.

The federal agency charged with cleaning up debris from the savings and loan debacle has been selling failed thrifts' deposits cheaply and may sell more at even lower prices. The Newport Beach office of the Resolution Trust Corp. sold a total of more than $15 billion in failed California thrifts' deposits last year. And except for a few cases in which the buyers also picked up some solid assets--such as branch offices--the premiums paid typically amounted to less than 0.

Despite support from an honor roll of prominent California banking experts, a savings and loan owned and operated by an Irvine company has been shut down by regulators, who said it was critically undercapitalized. Waterfield Bank of Germantown, Md., purchased in 2008 by Affinity Financial Corp. of Irvine, was closed Friday after suffering heavy losses on mortgages it had made before the acquisition. Unable to find a buyer, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it would liquidate the failed institution at a loss of $51 million to the bank insurance fund.

NASA's orbiting Mars Odyssey probe has spied what appear to be ancient salt deposits in the southern highlands of the planet, giving scientists another place to study whether the environment could have supported primitive life. The evidence of salt remnants is important because they pinpoint regions where water once flowed. Scientists said the deposits probably formed 3.5 billion to 3.9 billion years ago, possibly from groundwater that reached the surface and evaporated, leaving behind the mineral deposits.

Regulators have shut down First Georgia Community Bank, the 23rd U.S. bank to fail this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has been appointed receiver of the bank, located in Jackson. It had $237.5 million in assets and $197.4 million in deposits as of Nov. 7. Customers will still have full access to their deposits, the FDIC said.

Reporting from Goleta, Calif. -- Gov. Jerry Brown said Friday that he was taking a closer look at a controversial method of oil extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," as he seeks to help California maintain its role as one of the country's top crude producers. Speaking to business leaders at a renewable energy conference in Goleta, Brown said he was studying fracking, which oil companies are touting as a potential key to tapping previously unreachable deposits in the Golden State.

If you want to do business with the biggest bank in the Western world, don't get on a plane to New York or London. The new place to go is sunny California. Wells Fargo & Co., with its headquarters in downtown San Francisco, has shot ahead of the East Coast institutions that have long been the behemoths of the financial industry, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. andCitigroup Inc. Although Wells Fargo still has fewer bank deposits than its closest competitor, its total stock market value is now about $178 billion - that's about $70 billion more than Citigroup and about $9 billion more than JPMorgan.

Tesla Motors Inc. has yet to deliver the much-touted Model S — the electric sedan it is making at its auto factory in Fremont, Calif. — but that didn't stop the automaker from taking reservations for a sport utility vehicle it doesn't expect to begin selling until 2014. The Palo Alto, Calif., maker of electric vehicles unveiled the Model X, an electric-powered SUV, and said interested buyers could put down a $5,000 deposit to reserve one, though the vehicle's price hasn't been set yet. The Model X looks more like a crossover than a traditional utility and features unusual gull-wing doors that lift up and out. Tesla plans to start manufacturing the vehicle at the end of 2013, with sales to begin the following year.

AT&T, Microsoft and Nokia haven't said when the Lumia 900 will hit stores or how much it will cost, but if the flagship Windows Phone is a device you just have to have, you can now pre-order it. Microsoft's retail stores are currently taking a $25 deposit for those looking to reserve themselves a Lumia 900 on launch day, whenever that is. The deposit offer was first reported by The Verge and confirmed to The Times on Friday through Microsoft...

Just off a rutted dirt road, a beach as white as flour pops into view from behind a wall of sea grape and rustling palms. Pelicans slice over turquoise waters, and not a single person stirs the quiet. The tableau, along a little-developed segment of Mexico's Caribbean coast, is a beachgoer's fantasy of unspoiled seaside splendor. Until you look down. For as far as the eye can see, the sand glitters with bits of bright color: fragments of trash, thousands and thousands of them, strung like a vast, foul necklace.

Question: In these tough financial times I think a lot of people (myself included) are considering renting out part of their home, if not already doing so. I haven't been successful in trying to look up what the law says about renting a room or part of your house. I read this is different from renting a duplex or regular rental property. Can you provide any guidance? Answer: Your question is timely because many homeowners facing mortgage or other economic stresses are looking at room rentals as an option to increase their income.

CalFed Acquires Florida Assets: California Federal Savings & Loan Assn., Los Angeles, has signed a definitive agreement to purchase about $74 million in deposits from American Savings & Loan Assn. of Florida. The transaction involves the deposits of five American Savings branches in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. Four of the branch buildings will also be acquired by California Federal; the fifth will be retained by Miami-based American Savings for sale or lease. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Two bank closings on Friday bring to 31 the number of bank failures this year. Regulators shut down Silverton Bank in Atlanta and set up a temporary government-controlled bank until a buyer could be found. The bank fell victim to large losses on real estate construction and development loans, regulators said. The federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the bank and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver. Silverton Bank had about $4.1 billion in assets and $3.3 billion in deposits as of Friday.

In a confidential deposition with congressional investigators, the then-head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives blamed agents, field supervisors and even his top command for never advising him that for more than a year, his agency allowed illegal gun sales along the southwestern U.S. border. The deposition, which was taken in July and was recently obtained by the Washington bureau, shows that Kenneth E. Melson was irate. Even his chief intelligence officer at ATF headquarters was upset with the operation, dubbed Fast and Furious, but did little to shut it down, Melson complained.

Bank of America was forced by public outrage to retreat from a plan to charge people $5 a month to use their debit card. But what if your bank told you that you'd have to pay it a fee to make a cash deposit? In other words, you'd have to give them money just to give them money. You'd be royally cheesed, right? Yet major banks routinely ding their business customers with cash-deposit fees. BofA, for example, says some of its business accounts levy a fee of 20 cents for every $100 in cash deposited after an initial $10,000.