But the recent crisis over securities based on risky home loans has brought them new attention.
Losses on investments tied to these risky home loans have affected not only American Banks but Banks around the world.
Faced with strong foreign demand for AAA-rated securities, American Banks had a strong incentive to create supposedly safe ones from packages of risky home loans.
Weakened by huge losses on risky home loans, the banking industry is now on the shakiest ground since the early 1990s, when more than 800 federally insured institutions failed in a three-year period.
