Get ready for a wave of bank failures.

[Johnboy60]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If it's Friday, there must be a bank failing somewhere across the country.

For six consecutive weeks, industry regulators have seized control of a bank after the market closed on Friday, bringing the total number of failed banks so far this year to 14.

To put that into perspective, 25 banks failed in 2008, suggesting that the rate of failures is quickening as the economic crisis deepens.

"We'll have a banner year [of failures] this year," said Stuart Greenbaum, retired dean and professor emeritus at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

At the current rate, nearly 100 institutions -- with a combined $50 billion in assets -- will collapse by year's end.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/20/news/companies/bank_failures/index.htm

 

[Dale]

I moved my account out of Wachovia Bank before they ran into trouble.

A little over a week ago I turned on the news and heard that regulators had ordered my current bank to merge with a more solvent bank. That turned out to be a false alarm, it was only a bank with a similar name. My bank is Riverside Bank of Florida. It was Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast that was flagged by regulators and ordered taken over by TIB.

You're right, Robert, it looks like the business that was supposed to symbolize stability is going through a roller coaster ride.

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