Lehman's Got a Reluctant Safety Net in Uncle Sam

Bove examined ratios of non-performing assets to total loans outstanding, as well as non-performing assets to total reserves and common equity. Besides IndyMac, the only other major bank near the "danger zone" was Washington Mutual, he said.

While there are surely more bleak days ahead for every company in the banking space, Bove is doubtful that this rumor-fueled crisis of volatile trading, insufficient liquidity and housing trauma will take out major commercial banks whose deposits are growing at a healthy rate.

"Does anyone really believe that Bank of America(BAC Quote) is not going to be around one hundred years from now?" he asked in a note late last week. "If so I cannot find that person. May be the hysteria is being overdone."

Paulson and Bernanke are now pushing Congress to enact laws that give regulators the power to limit the impact of individual bank failures.

Hintz says these last-ditch efforts to bail out financial institutions would not be necessary if regulators were able to disentangle the exposure that is shared among many institutions. Cubillas Ding, a senior analyst at Celent, says that going forward, regulators will also have to do a better job of understanding and monitoring the exotic practices and products that Wall Street manufactures.

"This will be new territory for both banks and regulators alike," he adds.