When I was a kid, I used to pray every night for a new bike. Then I realized that God doesn't work that way. So instead I stole a bike and asked Him to forgive me.

Neither strategy worked for four more banks, as the FDIC shut them down Friday (without finding buyers for two of them leading to losses for depositors who had balances exceeding the agency's insurance limits). Sun American's (FL) deposits and assets were acquired by First-Citizens Bank (NC) at a cost to the FDIC of $103 million. The Bank of Illinois was "absorbed" by Heartland Bank (IL) at a cost to the FDIC of about $54 million. Waterfield Bank (MD), at a cost to the FDIC $51 million, and Utah's Centennial Bank are now being run by the FDIC, with the help of Zion's Bank, at a cost of about $96 million.

Lately I have been hearing from producers, some of whom are upset about the current lending environment, some not. But for a slightly different view of things, here is what one very experienced and knowledgeable underwriter wrote to me: "It used to be that we could 'underwrite' a loan and use common sense to navigate individual circumstances and actually make a decision that a loan was a good credit risk.  Then DU and LP came along and gave us the laundry list that had to be followed.  We were still able to manually underwrite loans for those transactions that did not fit the box.  Then the bottom fell out of the business and everyone got scared and new rules came out. Investors and Wall Street were to blame for allowing individuals who were not telling the truth to buy homes. Today investors are pre-underwriting loans prior to purchase and we have to 'march to their tune' including getting pieces of paper that seem ridiculous, but since we need the investor to purchase the loan so we obtain them anyway.  Only the most qualified borrowers with all their ducks in a row get loans these days.