How Safe Is Your Bank?
Many depositors, who flocked to withdraw money from California's IndyMac bank this week, suddenly were faced another problem: Where will their money be safe?
"You really don't know, do you?" said one depositor.
For the average consumer, what do you look for in a bank?
CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker spoke with bank analyst Dennis Santiago, who says that while there is no foolproof checklist to determine if a bank is sound, there are important things to consider:
For do-it-yourselfers, the FDIC has numbers and information on every bank in the country and links to experts who have already crunched the numbers.
"To learn about a specific institution you're going to have to do your homework," Santiago said.
The main thing consumers can do is read the fine print.