It Appears That We Have a Major Problem With the Banks

Iowa bank is fifth failure this year A small community bank in Sac City, Iowa, has failed after examiners identified “significant loan losses that had not been previously identified,” according to a statement by the Iowa Division of Banking. In a continuation of the trend of US banks succumbing to financial issues, Citizens Bank in Sac City, Iowa, ceased operations on November 3, 2023.

The bank’s closure was confirmed by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation), marking it as the fifth such incident this year and the first one in Iowa since 2011. The FDIC cited undisclosed loan losses tied to a single industry outside the bank’s local territory as the primary reason for the failure. The assets and deposits of Citizens Bank, which amounted to $65,558,000 and $58,930,000 respectively prior to its closure, along with the majority of its operations, have been taken over by Iowa Trust & Savings Bank. The FDIC and IDOB (Iowa Division of Banking) had previously initiated an investigation into Citizens Bank’s non-local loan losses that resulted in a consent order. An independent consultant was appointed to manage the commercial trucking loan portfolio tied to these losses. Bank of America and Wells Fargo clients are being particularly hard hit by the outages. DownDetector reported that the banks’ customers were still experiencing issues with funds transfers, online banking, and retrieving account balances today. “@BankofAmerica Day 4 & still no direct deposit, no update on potential resolution or at the very least what’s being done to resolve the issue, no transparency, no assistance, no communication from you all at all. Nothing. Wow. This is so bizarre,” one person wrote on X on Monday morning.