Is Your California Bank Financially Safe?

IndyMac(IMB Quote) responded on Monday with an 8-K filing stating regulators were being kept abreast of the thrift's financial condition and that the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco was being diligent in increasing collateral and margin requirements for all of its members' borrowings.

The letter addressed Senator Schumer's concerns about brokered deposits by pointing out that over 96% of the institution's deposits were fully insured by the FDIC. The letter went on to complain that "as a result of Senator Schumer making his letters public and the resulting press coverage," IndyMac experienced over $100 million in deposit withdrawals last Friday and Saturday, although this activity slowed down on Monday.

Senator Schumer's letter was also directed to the Federal Housing Finance Board, the regulator of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, which had outstanding advances (loans) to IndyMac Bank, FSB of $10.4 billion as of March 31. The twelve regional Federal Home Loan Banks are cooperative wholesale banks, chartered by Congress and owned by district member banks. The advances to IndyMac are mainly collateralized with residential mortgages.

IndyMac's shares closed at 81 cents last Friday. IndyMac was unable to comment about the news last week, but may issue comments today or tomorrow. Please click here for our discussion of IndyMac's first quarter numbers.

Strongest Large Banks

California has 39 banks and S&Ls with at least $1 billion in total assets and nonperforming assets comprising less than 1% of total assets as of March 31. Here are the 10 with the strongest asset quality as of March 31:

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As always, you can check any bank or S&L's financial strength rating using TheStreet.com's Ratings Screener.