Remember people, FDIC insurance protect normal depositors. FDIC has done a terrific job at making sure that nothing changes for most people. If you have over 100K in a bank you should be checking with the bank and your accountant anyways to make sure you are not exposed to any losses.

If you have less than 100k in FDIC insured accounts you really should not do anything. Wait for the dust to settle and then make a decision.

National City?! I used to have a credit card with them...

I'm be very surprised that National City has lasted this long. Being a Clevelander, it's a tough pill to swallow when one of your cities largest employers is in jeopardy.

@snowmoon: Soon to be "less than 250k" if the news reports I've heard are true.

@ameyer: To follow up, they seem to have tacked this onto v2 of the bailout bill.
Personally, I think that it'd be a good idea for them to extend FDIC insurance to all insured deposits, regardless of value, at least until the crisis is over.

Weird; back when people were all upset that that FDIC list of bank ratings had been leaked or whatever -- or maybe this was an acceptable list, I don't know -- there was some official list that ranked banks on a safety scale of 1 to 5, where 5 was best; Sovereign, I'm pretty certain, was a 4.

This was only a month or two ago.

I have an equity line through National City. It was closed back in May because the value of my house dropped, so I guess I'm part of the problem. No late payments on my bills though, so at least I'm SOME income for them.

Great! Here I was about to jump from WaMu to Sovereign... oy.

I am darkly amused, because Sovreign was moved into New England to counter an anti-trust problem with FleetBoston/Bank of America, way back when. (I can't remember if it was BoA yet or if it was fleet. Or hell, it might have been BankBoston but I think it was Fleet by then. Yeah, I've had my checking account through so many mergers that the account number starts with 8 leading zeroes.)

In fact I anticipate a wave of anti-trust suits sometime around 2015, but that's a problem for another day.

I jumped from Sovereign to DCU (Digital Federal Credit Union) a few years back, and I've been pretty happy since the jump. Their site looks crappy, but it works and I can do everything through it, the people are friendly, and yeah. I like them.

That article is 2 days old. Look at the price of SOV now... $4.58. Up over 100% since Monday's close. They have liquidity, unlike WB and WM.

Unfortunately they got caught up in a massive selloff by some hedge funds that also held stock in WB and WM.

@toddkravos: Agreed, speaking as a Charlottean who watched the city's second largest employer, Wachovia, implode on Monday.

@toddkravos: Even more bad news for Ohio, I've heard Cincy based Fifth-Third (dumbest name for a bank ever) is also getting squeezed. 5/3 and National City are regional powerhouses.

I personally cannot stand using National City, but because of my current situation I have had trouble finding another bank. Yes, *I* made poor choices and I now have to live with those choices, but I shouldn't also have to suffer because of National City's own assorted problems.

@lockdog: Take it with a grain of salt, but fifth-third seems to be doing ok*
At least until the Feds smack them down for their blatant disregard for federal banking regulations.

National City and Sovereign Bank (assuming we're talking about Sovereign Bank of PA) aren't doing well.
However, unless this article causes a run, I don't think they're next.
*Source: [www.bankrate.com]