Bank crisis: 10 things to know now

The financial system is dealing with the worst housing meltdown since the Great Depression and is fending off an extraordinary number of body blows: the Bear Stearns debacle, the IndyMac bank failure, the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy and the government's bailout of American Insurance Group.

The events of the past few days and months have many people reeling. My e-mail inbox and the MSN Money message boards have been flooded with readers' questions about the financial crisis.

Here are answers to some of those questions.

How can I tell if my bank will fail?

The short answer: You can't. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. doesn't publicize the names of banks on its "problem list." According to the American Bankers Association, most banks on the list recover and return to profitability without intervention.

Ratings services such as Bankrate.com's Safe and Sound system and TheStreet.com Ratings try to measure the relative strength of the nation's financial institutions. Some troubled banks recover, while others plunge quickly into insolvency. For more, see "What if your bank is seized?"

If my bank fails, will I still have access to my money?

If you're at the gas pump trying to use a debit card, for instance, will it just not work one day?

You'll most likely have uninterrupted access to your accounts even as your money is transferred to a new bank.

Regulators usually shut down failed banks on Fridays. The FDIC then works all weekend to transfer insured deposits and most of the bank's assets to the bank that's taking over the business, or to a new entity created for just this purpose. (IndyMac Bank's insured deposits and assets were transferred to the newly chartered IndyMac Federal Bank.)