My bank is looking bleak

[Sue J]

I've been banking with Amtrust Bank (used to be Ohio Savings) for years and recently the news about them has been pretty grim.

AmTrust Bank says it's working to satisfy regulators -- but deadline looms - Business – cleveland.com

The deadline has been extended to Jan. 25.

Crain's Cleveland Business: AmTrust submits new business plan to federal regulators

Read the "Linked Articles" for the details. I got curious and started reading blogs by employees (most are now former employees) and with all the people being laid off and the rest being bitter and miserable it's a wonder they are still able to operate. The gist of it is that it looks like they may be taken over or sold or somehow closed down by regulators.

We have our main checking accounts and our immediate need savings account there. I have all the auto-pay bills linked to the checking accounts.

I'm wondering if I should pull everything out of there and get set up somewhere else. They are FDIC insured. In the past we had CDs and a Safe Deposit Box but don't have either of those now. If they get shut down/taken over or sold is there a smooth transition? How long of a delay should I anticipate?

I hate to behave like the depositors in "It's a Wonderful Life" but this isn't a movie, it's our bank.

Have any of you been through a bank failure? How was the transition? Am I nuts to keep our accounts open there?

 

[SteveL]

If the FDIC, or FSLIC is going to get them, if it sold, it will be very seamless to you. If is going down the drain, the FDIC will pay you within a couple of weeks. For WAMU folks, they never knew what happened, very seamless.

 

[Sue J]

Update -

It took almost a year since my post about this but it finally happened this evening at around 6:30 PM. I had been following the news and rumors, the latest news being that the bank parent company had filed bankruptcy earlier this week and the rumors that today would be the day for the bank takeover, so this is not a surprise.

A link at the bank site makes it sound like this should all be seamless for the depositors -
FDIC: Failed Bank Information - Bank Closing Information for AmTrust Bank, Cleveland, OH

The bank will now be operated by New York Community Bank, never heard of them but I suppose I'll get to know them now.

No worries, we have much less than the FDIC limit. I have all my automatic payments going through this bank but none of them are happening this week.

 

[Gumby]

Thanks for the update Sue.

 

[redduck]

In the last two years, I've been with two banks that had failed and were taken over by other banks. Absolutely seamless. The new banks even kept the employees at the failed banks. Just the names of the banks were changed. The employees were allowed to keep their original names. Eventually, one of the banks issued new checks at no cost to the bank customers. There was no issue regarding safety deposit boxes. Total non-event.

 

[kyounge1956]

If the FDIC, or FSLIC is going to get them, if it sold, it will be very seamless to you. If is going down the drain, the FDIC will pay you within a couple of weeks. For WAMU folks, they never knew what happened, very seamless.

I have a safety deposit box at what used to be my local WAMU branch. It was a pretty seamless transition. I did not have to make a new signature card or anything like that.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

We have been with WAMU for years. The conversion was very well planned and 'seamless'. I wish WestJet's reservation system changeover was planned and executed as well.

Now, Key Bank seems to be falling apart. And they are a survivor! Customer service appears to be crumbling as they have high turnover.

 

[SecondCor521]

I went through the IndyMac bank failure and, like others have said, it was entirely seamless. I think I even had an automatic transfer scheduled for the Monday immediately after the failure and it went through just fine and on time. I even kept my same username and password.

2Cor521

 

[Texas Proud]

I have not heard of a bank being taken over that has been bad... almost all are seamless at first... usually it is the same people doing the same thing with the same equipment etc. after the take over as before... it takes time to convert you to the new banks systems.... so short term, NO change should be seen, long term you might get new checks with new check numbers... and they might close down your branch...


One of the funny things that happens is how close the branches can be... back in the S&L problems, my mother was with a S&L that took over some that failed... at one time there were branches on three corners of an intersection!!! The fourth was a gas station... so they could not get all four...

 

[Lsbcal]

The only negative things about the WAMU takeover were (1) Chase lowered the savings rates they payed out and (2) the Chase electronic system is OK but not quite as nicely designed as WAMU's was. Employee's seem to be happy. Our safe deposit box is still there.