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This is an unofficial list of Problem Banks compiled only from public sources.

Here is the unofficial problem bank list for Feb 3, 2012. (table is sortable by assets, state, etc.)

Changes and comments from surferdude808:

Quiet week for the Unofficial Bank List with no closings, one voluntary liquidation, and one addition. The list is unchanged at 958 institutions but assets increased by nearly $600 million to $389.6 billion. The First National Bank of Ordway, Ordway, CO ($45 million) underwent a voluntary liquidation in late January. The sole addition was Community West Bank, National Association, Goleta, CA ($643 million Ticker: CWBC) after the OCC issued a Consent Order against the bank. The only other change was a Prompt Corrective Action order issued by the Federal Reserve against Bank of Bartlett, Bartlett, TN ($371 million). Next week will likely be quiet as well.

Earlier Employment posts:
• January Employment Report: 243,000 Jobs, 8.3% Unemployment Rate
• Graphs: Unemployment Rate, Participation Rate, Jobs added
• Employment Summary, Part Time Workers, and Unemployed over 26 Weeks
• Construction Employment, Duration of Unemployment, Unemployment by Education and Diffusion Indexes
• All Employment Graphs

By CalculatedRisk

By RonPaul.com

The European Union leaders meet in Brussels tomorrow and there is a growing recognition that austerity alone will not work. From the NY Times: E.U. Leaders Set to Admit Austerity Is Not Enough

European leaders are expected to conclude this week that what the debt-laden, sclerotic countries of the Continent need are a dose of economic growth.
…
A draft of the European Union summit meeting communiqué calls for ‘‘growth-friendly consolidation and job-friendly growth,’’ an indication that European leaders have come to realize that austerity measures, like those being put in countries like Greece and Italy, risk stoking a recession and plunging fragile economies into a downward spiral.

And on Greece from the NY Times: Greek Coalition Partners to Back New Reforms

As Greece tries to reach a debt-swap agreement with its private creditors, the country’s prime minister suggested on Sunday that the three leaders in his fractious coalition were prepared to back additional austerity measures and reforms needed to receive a second bailout.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is in the middle of a three ring circus negotiating with private creditors, negotiating with the “troika” (European Union, ECB, IMF), and negotiating with the various political parties in Greece.

Yesterday:
• Summary for Week Ending January 27th
• Schedule for Week of Jan 29th

By CalculatedRisk

From Alejandro Lazo at the LA Times: California calls $25-billion mortgage settlement ‘inadequate’

Calif. Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris’ office has called a proposed $25-billion settlement with the nation’s mortgage industry “inadequate.”

“We’ve reviewed the details of the latest settlement proposal from the banks, and we believe it is inadequate for California,” Shum Preston, a spokesman for Harris, said in a statement. “Our state has been clear about what any multistate settlement must contain: transparency, relief going to the most distressed homeowners and meaningful enforcement that ensures accountability. At this point, this deal does not suffice for California.”
…
[As part of the settlement] attorneys general would agree to release the banks from further action related to the improper servicing of loans as well as claims against originating mortgages. Several attorneys general, including New York’s Eric Schneiderman and California’s Harris, have voiced concerns that those releases are overly broad and would preclude them from carrying out ongoing investigations.

Schneiderman was appointed Tuesday by President Obama as co-chairman of a new investigative effort that will try to coordinate existing federal and state probes into mortgage practices before the financial crisis. Schneiderman promised Wednesday to move aggressively.

A spokesman for Schneiderman said in a statement that the New York attorney general would not sign onto a foreclosure settlement that would limit his ability to carry out investigations of the mortgage crisis.

By CalculatedRisk

By RonPaul.com

The talks are continuing, but it is unclear if a deal will be reached before the eurozone finance minister meeting on Monday.

From the Athens News: Dallara leaves Athens, talks to continue: sources

The representatives of Greece’s private creditors have left Athens and debt swap talks will continue over the phone during the weekend, sources close to the negotiations said, adding that it was unlikely that a deal would be clinched before next week.
…
Athens is anxious to strike a deal before a meeting on Monday of eurozone finance ministers, just in time to set in motion the paperwork and approvals necessary to receive a new injection of aid to avoid a messy bankruptcy in March.

“The elements of an unprecedented voluntary PSI are coming into place,” the Institute of International Finance said in a statement after Friday’s three-hour evening negotiation session, referring to the bond swap scheme.

From the Financial Times: Bondholders face additional losses on Greek debt

The Institute of International Finance, representing holders of some €200bn of Greek debt, on Saturday denied rumours the talks had stalled, saying that experts from its steering committee “will be working with Greek government officials on many aspects of the PSI.”
excerpt with permission

Earlier:
• Summary for Week ending January 20th
• Schedule for Week of Jan 22nd

By CalculatedRisk

From the WSJ: From Bottom Up, Signs of Housing Recovery (ht Brian)

Across Westchester, the number of buyers in contract to buy homes priced less than $500,000 at the end of 2011 rose by nearly 40% compared to a year earlier, according to a market report issued by the broker Houlihan Lawrence. Sales weakened at higher price points.

Analysts have noted a similar pattern in New Jersey. Sales have picked up due to buyers of properties priced less than $400,000, according to data compiled by the Otteau Valuation Group. The number of such contracts signed during the fourth quarter rose by 11.3% compared to the same period a year earlier.

Analysts said housing-market recoveries often begin at the bottom.

“It is nice when you get the high end of the market doing well,” said Chris Meyers, chief operating officer of Houlihan Lawrence, the largest residential brokerage in Westchester, “but in our experience the strong markets get healthy from the bottom up.”

The article doesn’t discuss the role of investors buying, and investor buying is at record levels in California and other bubble states.

Also the article doesn’t mention the higher conforming loan limits from Fannie and Freddie in Westchester. But there is some truth to the quote “markets get healthy from the bottom up”.

By CalculatedRisk

STATEMENT FOR RON PAUL/ TOM DAVIS RELEASE:

“It’s easy to campaign on lower taxes, less spending and fewer regulations – it’s another thing entirely to stand up for these limited government principles when the entire Washington establishment is aligned against you. Yet for more than three decades Ron Paul has cast thousands of lonely votes in our nation’s capital based on the constitutional principles that this country was founded on – and that the Republican Party has promised to protect. Yet while generations of politicians – including far too many Republicans – were losing their way or caving to the status quo, Ron Paul was standing as a Tea Party of one against a towering wave of red ink.

2012 marks the fifth consecutive year in which the federal government is going to spend well over $1 trillion in money it doesn’t have. Each and every American taxpayer is now on the hook for $135,000 worth of federal debt – and last year’s debt deal adds another $7 trillion in deficit spending over the coming decade. Meanwhile the U.S. Senate hasn’t passed a budget in nearly 1,000 days.

I’m endorsing Ron Paul because enough is enough. Despite this wave of unprecedented government spending, our unemployment rate has remained above 8 percent for the last 34 months and 146.4 million Americans – one out of every two people in this country – are now classified as poor or low-income.

Government activism and government intervention clearly hasn’t fixed our economy – which is why the Republican Party needs a nominee who isn’t wedded to that failed approach. We won’t chart a path to fiscal solvency or victory in November by running toward the failed ideas of the left – we will achieve those victories by returning to the principles that the Republican Party once stood for.

That is why I am proud to endorse Ron Paul for president.

Ron Paul’s record matches his rhetoric, his fiscal plan matches the fiscal challenges that our nation is facing and his movement represents the taxpayers whose interests have been ignored in the political process for far too long.

I’m also endorsing him because unlike what the pundits have led you to believe, he is the candidate who gives the Republican Party the best chance to beat Barack Obama in November.

We have a choice: We can keep electing candidates who talk about change only during political campaigns as a way to get elected, or we can finally elect a candidate who will walk the walk and make that change a reality – restoring our bottom line, our individual liberties and our national pride in the process.”

To learn more about Senator Tom Davis visit www.senatortomdavis.com

By RonPaul.com

From Bloomberg: Attorneys General Discuss Mortgage Probes as Bank Talks Drag On

About a dozen state attorneys general met this week to discuss their mortgage investigations and how they might work together as settlement talks with banks over foreclosures drag on, three people familiar with the matter said.

The group, which met in Washington, included New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, California’s Kamala Harris and Martha Coakley of Massachusetts …

This is new:

Over the weekend, the Justice Department contacted four smaller mortgage servicers, including U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and HSBC Finance Corp., with the goal of including them in any future settlement agreement. The overture was a first step meant to get reaction from the smaller banks.

More on the meeting from the Financial Times: State prosecutors confer over US mortgages probes. It doesn’t sound like a deal is close.

By CalculatedRisk

A couple of articles …

From the WaPo: France, Germany warn Greece to make debt deal

France and Germany, the European Union’s key powers, insisted Monday that private creditors must take losses to help over-indebted Greece right its finances, but they also warned the Greek government that E.U. rescue funds will be held back unless it makes a deal soon with the increasingly nervous banks holding its debt.
…
“We must see progress on the voluntary restructuring of Greek debt,” Reuters quoted Merkel as telling a joint news conference after the Berlin consultations. “From our point of view, the second Greek aid package, including this restructuring, must be in place quickly. Otherwise, it will not be possible to pay out the next tranche (of the bailout) for Greece.”

From the WSJ: Greek Bailout in Peril

The spreading recession in the euro zone is also making it harder for Greece and other countries with bailout programs to close their fiscal deficits, economists said. Greece’s stubbornly high deficit is raising the risk of a full-blown default on its bonds …

Usually these negotiations continue right until the last minute. The “spreading recession in the euro zone” isn’t helping.

By CalculatedRisk