Undercapitalized Banks and Thrifts

Once again, we're excluding one bank that only operates as a trust bank, with no deposits or loans, and a very small Texas bank that is just a "shell" at this point, with no deposits, no loans and hardly any assets, since the bank charter is being transferred. We are also excluding IndyMac Federal Bank, since it was still being run by the FDIC receivership as of Dec. 31.

There were three institutions that reported negative capital ratios as of Dec. 31. Two have already failed. The third is American Sterling Bank, whose CEO, John Kopecky, told us on Feb. 18 that the institution had total equity capital of $12.4 million as of Dec. 31. Tier-1 capital was negative $1.9 million, mainly because deferred tax assets of $14.2 million were required to be excluded. He also expressed confidence the institution would either be sold by the end of March, or would be able to raise additional capital.

Kopecky wasn't immediately available for comment for this article.

Ratings

TheStreet.com Ratings issues independent and very conservative financial strength ratings on each of the nation's 8,500 banks and savings and loans. These are available at no charge on the Bank & Thrift Ratings Screener. In addition, the Financial Strength Ratings for 4,000 life, health, annuity, and property/casualty insurers are available on the Insurers & HMOs Screener.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints