In light of Cyprus banks taking depositor's money, how do you feel about USA banks?

[dixiegrrrrl]

see:
Stunning Bailout For Cyprus —Bank Depositors To Get Instant 10% Tax Before Banks Reopen This Week

Eurozone leaders and the IMF on Saturday announced an unprecedented levy on all deposits in Cypriot banks as the sting in the tail of a 10-billion-euro bailout for the near-bankrupt government in Nicosia.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022517284

1 vote, 0 passes | Time left: Time expired
	Never happen to USA banks, my money is safe in my bank
	0 (0%)
	Never happen to USA credit unions, my money is safe in my credit union.
	0 (0%)
	Would not put it past USA banks to do this at some point in the future.
	1 (100%)
	Would not put it past USA credit unions to do this at some point in the future.
	0 (0%)
	I don't have/keep enough money in banks to even worry about it.
	0 (0%)
	Other:
	0 (0%)
	Robb is a dingbat
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[gopiscrap]

1. I don't trust any large bank

[reteachinwi]

2. This has already happened (kind of)

at MF Global, though individual account holders did manage to get their money back.

It’s apparent from Mr. Giddens’s report that as MF Global’s financial woes deepened last summer and fall, protecting customer assets was among the least of Mr. Corzine’s priorities. Mr. Corzine testified to Congress that he never knowingly asked anyone to break the law, and nothing in the report explicitly contradicts that. At the same time, he made demands for cash that appear to have left employees no alternative but to divert customer assets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/09/business/trustee-suggests-mf-global-misused-customers-money.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. And yet, Corizine walks free, no charges.

[MFrohike]

4. I never imagined something like this could happen

With all the wtf moments of the last few years, I have to admit that I've considered deposit insurance to be the closest thing to certain as you could hope to find. Sure, it was conceptually possible that the guarantee could breached, but the only scenario I could picture for that to happen was a general collapse. In that case, I figure deposit insurance wouldn't be a high priority.

The people in DC seem bound and determined to follow Europe's failed example. Everything is balancing the budget and reducing the deficit, with lip service and fairy dust paid to the problems of housing and unemployment. Given that, I could see the current leadership in DC cheerfully ripping up the FDIC charter and telling us that "government needs to live within its means."

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. It happened in Iceland

The deposit scheme was overwhelmed when the 3 main banks all collapsed, and they decided not to pay the non-Icelandic savers. That's why there was the big row with the UK and Netherlands - they stepped in to return the money to the savers from their own countries, and then demanded the Icelandic government reimburse them.

A surprising amount of people on DU said "serves those savers right - they should have known using an Icelandic bank was dodgy".

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. MY concern is that electronic banking is so ubiquitous.

and works fine
until it doesn't.

We lost the main computer line into our town on a Friday afternoon.
Wasn't fixed until the next evening.
Hardly anyone had cash on hand to buy what they needed in the stores, to cash their pay checks, to buy gas.
EBT cards ( food stamps) were useless.
How many people keep a stash of small bills and change in walking aroud money for moments like this?

A tiny town, a small picture of what it is like when the electronic umbilical cord to our wallets is severed.

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. HSBC were laundering drug cartel monies and they aren't being prosecuted for it.

Of course American banks wouldn't screw over Americans. Says an Occupy member who has seen BofA and Wells Fargo engage in illegal foreclosure actions against the terminally ill and disabled.

[JVS]

7. FDIC insurance, which indirectly drives down interest on our deposits, is something we pay for...

to assure that such a thing doesn't have to happen. Many foreign banking systems don't have a mandatory insurance system and there has been scrambling within the Eurozone for years to make sure that depositors wouldn't have to take haircuts when their banks failed.

Of course just because we pay for protection doesn't mean our authorities won't decide to screw us over when push comes to shove.

[dkf]

9. Cyprus Bank Levy Vote Delayed By Parliament Until Monday, As Nation's Bailout Hangs In The Balance

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Cyprus' parliament on Sunday postponed a debate and vote on a controversial levy on all bank deposits that the cash-strapped country's creditors had demanded in exchange for (EURO)10 billion ($13 billion) in rescue money.

The vote, which had been expected later Sunday, has been pushed back to Monday afternoon, parliamentary official Antonis Koutalianos said.

The announcement set off an immediate scramble among top European officials, with reports that the European Central Bank was pressuring Cypriot authorities to hold the vote without delay.

The stakes are high for the tiny island nation of one million people, because a rejection of the levy by lawmakers could push Cyprus into bankruptcy and possibly out of the common euro currency. Officials also fear a massive run Tuesday on Cypriot banks – after a national holiday on Monday – no matter which way the voting goes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/17/cyprus-bank-levy_n_2895629.html?utm_hp_ref=business

This is a bad idea. They need to rethink it.

[dkf]

10. Btw it's a tax.

In retrospect why should we be shocked when a government taxes whatever it wants?