fdic

A surge in earnings by the biggest banks at the end of last year made 2011 the most profitable time for the industry in five years. More earnings and fewer troubled banks suggest the industry has healed since the 2008 financial crisis.

This week, the government took a big first step toward shutting down the Can't Lose Room in the Wall Street Casino. It's now one comment period away from enacting the Volcker Rule, which limits the kinds of risky investments banks can make with money insured by the U.S. taxpayer.

More than 70 U.S. banks have failed this year, according to the FDIC. And one DailyFinance reader wants to know how safe is the money in our bank accounts? Laura Rowley responds.

Picking a bank is a lot like selecting a new paint color for your kitchen. You're going to see a lot of it, and while you can always change your mind if you don't like the one you've chosen, it's a hassle. We asked the experts for advice on how to choose the one best suited to your needs.

Given the level of public outrage over the government's rescue of banks during the financial crisis, the final cost to the taxpayer of keeping those failed institutions afloat turns out to have been relatively modest: The FDIC has paid out a mere $8.89 billion to 165 banks since the crisis began.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has notified Republic Bank & Trust of Kentucky that its high-cost refund anticipation loans are "unsafe and unsound." The FDIC's action against Republic Bank is based on the IRS's decision last year to no longer offer information on a taxpayer's debt...

State treasurers and other government agencies are currently holding more than $32 billion in unclaimed assets from 117 million accounts that their owners have either forgotten about or never knew they had. As the sentence above says, billions of dollars in unclaimed assets are sitting in...

The number of federally insured banks at risk of failing rose to 884 -- nearly 12% -- in the last quarter of 2010, reaching the highest level in 18 years.

The federal government says excessive pay at financial institutions was one of the main causes of the recent economic crisis. It now wants to make sure bank executives and traders take less risk, by insisting they defer a large part of their compensation.

Two recent acquisitions by Canadian banks likely foretell that M&A activity among U.S. banks will only accelerate next year. Smaller banks that survived the financial crisis, but have few growth opportunities, are now attractive takeover targets.