Small banks continue to fail in US

Three banks have been reported to fail in the first day of May taking the total number of bank failure in this year 2009 to 32 in just 4 months and 5 days. The banks to fail this month were:
1. America West Bank, Layton

2. Citizens Community Bank, Ridgewood
3. Silverton Bank, N.A., Atlanta

The news was updated on FDIC's website on 5th May. The biggest of the three is Silverton with about 4 billion assets. The bank, on its website, has put up the following notice:

"Silverton Bank, N.A. is participating in the FDIC's Transaction Account Guarantee Program. Under that program, all noninterest-bearing transaction accounts are fully guaranteed by the FDIC for the entire amount in the account through December 31, 2009. Coverage under the Transaction Account Guarantee Program is in addition to and separate from the coverage available under the FDIC's general deposit insurance rules. Accounts that sweep into overnight Fed Funds are not considered non-interest bearing; therefore, they will not be covered under the FDIC’s Transaction Account Guarantee Program."

FDIC has created a bridge bank, Silverton Bridge Bank, to take over the operations of Silverton Bank. The bank will start its regular business from July 29, 2009.
The depositors will have the first priority followed by creditors and shareholders.

Details on the deposit insurance and other bank failure related information can be assessed from FDIC's website.

Marsh & McLennan soared on Putnam's sale

Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) , one of the world's largest risk and insurance broker, has reported a net income of $1.95b against last quarter $176m. There was a one time income of $1.85b from sale of its stake in Putnam Investment. Operating income has dropped by 57%.

AIG and Morgan Stanley declare their mortgage write-downs

AIG declared an after tax write-down hitting its bottom line by $2.7 billion and for Morgan Stanley this figure was $2.5 billion.

Morgan Stanley, the second biggest US securities firm after Goldman Sachs, has reportedly written down $3.7 billion in the first two months of its fourth quarter. More than $40 billion dollars have been written down so far by major banks and this figure is expected to escalate to $70 billion.

American International Group (AIG), world's largest insurance agency, had reported a 27% decline in earnings to $3.09 billion against $4.22 billion in the same quarter last year. AIG has insured some players against their mortgage related risks.