Six Banks Fail, 2010 Tally at 15

Georgia leads all states with 32 bank or thrift failures from the beginning of 2008 through Friday, followed by Illinois and California with 23 each and Florida with 18.

Large holding companies acquiring failed institutions during the current crisis have included J.P. Morgan Chase(JPM), which acquired Washington Mutual, the largest-ever bank or thrift to fail in the U.S; U.S. Bancorp(USB); SunTrust Banks(STI); Regions Financial(RF); Fifth Third Bancorp(FITB); Zions Bancorp; and PNC Financial(PNC); and BB&T(BBT).

The FDIC's temporary increase of agency's basic limit on individual deposit insurance coverage to $250,000 from $100,000 has been extended through 2013. While the agency also temporarily waived all deposit insurance limits for business transaction accounts (checking accounts), the insurance limit on these accounts are scheduled to go back to $100,000 on June 30.

It will be more important than ever for business and municipal entities such as school districts to carefully monitor the health of their banks. It's very easy to have more than $100,000 of somebody else's money flowing through a business account.

TheStreet.com Ratings issues independent and very conservative financial strength ratings on each of the nation's 8,500 banks and savings and loans. They are available at no charge on the Banks & Thrifts Screener.

In addition, the Financial Strength Ratings for 4,000 life, health, annuity, and property/casualty insurers are available on the Insurers & HMOs Screener.

TheStreet.com Ratings also provides award-winning stock ratings, which are available on the Stock Ratings Screener.

TheStreet.com Ratings was recently ranked the No. 1 independent stock selector during the market meltdown by BNY ConvergEx Group's BNY Jaywalk.

-- Written by Philip van Doorn in Jupiter Fla.

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