by Calculated Risk on 11/24/2012 05:27:00 PM

CR Note: The first unofficial problem bank list was published in August 2009 with 389 institutions. The number of unofficial problem banks grew steadily and peaked at 1,002 institutions on June 10, 2011. The list has been declining recently.

This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources.

Here is the unofficial problem bank list for Nov 23, 2012. (repeat from last week, table is sortable by assets, state, etc.)

Changes and comments from surferdude808:

As expected, a very quiet week for the Unofficial Problem Bank List as it went without change. You have to go back to January 6th of this year for the last time it went a week unchanged. The list stands at 857 institutions with assets of $329.2 billion. A year ago, the list held 980 institutions with assets of $400.5 billion.

Next week, the FDIC will likely release its actions through October 2012 and the Official Problem Bank List as of September 30, 2012. The difference between the two lists will likely drop from 187 at last issuance to the low 170s.

CR Note: The FDIC's official problem bank list is comprised of banks with a CAMELS rating of 4 or 5, and the list is not made public. (CAMELS is the FDIC rating system, and stands for Capital adequacy, Asset quality, Management, Earnings, Liquidity and Sensitivity to market risk. The scale is from 1 to 5, with 1 being the strongest.)

As a substitute for the CAMELS ratings, surferdude808 is using publicly announced formal enforcement actions, and also media reports and company announcements that suggest to us an enforcement action is likely, to compile a list of possible problem banks in the public interest.

When the list was increasing, the official and "unofficial" counts were about the same. Now with the number of problem banks declining, the unofficial list is lagging the official list. This probably means regulators are changing the CAMELS rating on some banks before terminating the formal enforcement actions.

Earlier:
• Summary for Week Ending Nov 23rd
• Schedule for Week of Nov 25th