Salem, OR

Recent events in the banking industry have raised a number of questions about the health of the overall industry and the safety of customer deposits. The overwhelming number of banks - including those doing business in Oregon - are safe, healthy and sound, according to the Oregon Bankers Association (OBA).

“Overall, Oregon’s banks are well capitalized and have adequate reserves to address economic challenges,” says OBA’s President and CEO Linda Navarro. “Banks in Oregon are, and continue to be, the safest place for deposits.”

Supporting facts include:

• Oregon banks are highly capitalized following years of record growth and earnings. They have sufficient reserves - "rainy day" funds - to weather tough economic times and move forward.
• FDIC insurance – extended to all depositors at insured banks – provides an added backstop. It covers deposits up to $100,000 per depositor per institution (savings, checking, CDs and money‐market deposit accounts at insured banks), and up to $250,000 for certain retirement accounts. No depositor has ever lost a cent of insured deposits due to a bank closure.
• People want to live and work in Oregon. The state continues to experience growth in many areas of the economy. Moreover, Oregon as a whole has fewer sub‐prime loans than the country’s more challenged residential real estate markets.
• According to bank regulators, non‐traditional mortgage lending practices played a large part of the recent demise of select banks. The majority of banks did not make nor do they hold any sub‐prime mortgage loans in their portfolios.
• A very small percentage of banks throughout the country are considered troubled today. In the case of IndyMac Bank, the following statement was made by the bank’s primary regulator ‐the Office of Thrift Supervision.