Thanks gentlemen....will be doing some studying.
For banks, the FDIC posts numbers that are 3-6 months old under ‘Bank Find’ or ‘Institutional Directory’ - they don’t make it particularly easy to find, but it’s online. Pull up the condition ratios, and see if they are getting better or worse. The higher the ratio the better; while it won’t warn of fraudulent books (like the recent case in Georgia) generally if the capital numbers are in the double digits the bank should be OK. If Core is a high single digit and the others are double digit, it’s probably OK. The Credit Union folks do the same,but their numbers are even harder to find and use.
And remember, even when the FDIC fund went broke, and that happened both a few years ago and in the previous time, no one ever lost a cent of *insured* deposit.
Easier, for banks, is to find someone who will post ‘Texas Ratios’ online. If the Ratio is over 100, the bank is in trouble, if it is over 200, it’s going to need a bailout or it will likely fail.
http://www.amateur-investor.net/TexasRatio.htm