Is Your Cash Sleeping Tight at the Bank?
Friday, Dec. 21, 2007 3:16 p.m. EST

Is your money safe? What with all the headlines on billions in write-downs and runs on state investment pools, it’s a reasonable question.
For the vast majority of Americans, the message is: relax.

That’s because savings, checking, money-market accounts and certificates of deposit at banks – the most common savings instruments used by consumers – are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC).

The FDIC covers up to $100,000 in individual accounts and $200,000 in joint accounts. IRA accounts are protected up to $250,000.

Almost always when a bank fails, another one takes over its accounts with no interruption in service to customers. If there is no takeover, the FDIC itself is on the hook for your money – up to the prescribed limits.
Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com, points out that when NetBank filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, the largest bank failure in Georgia history, depositors felt not a ripple.

NetBank’s collapse was announced on a Friday and by Monday morning, ING Direct already had gained control of NetBank’s savings accounts. The meltdown didn’t affect a single cash transaction over the weekend, McBride says.

The danger is a run on the bank, but regulators move fast to keep the fear at a minimum.

"The regulators close the institution and do a lot of the legwork in terms of assuming deposits or finding another institution to do it before the public gets wind of it,â€