The FDIC isn't telling us something!

The government's latest assessment of the nation's financial system showed that many more small banks are in trouble. But what the report didn't say may speak volumes.

On Tuesday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. revealed that the number of institutions on its so-called "problem bank" list jumped to 117 during the second quarter, up from 90 just three months earlier.

That list has gained greater attention lately as many banks continue to suffer losses stemming from the deteriorating housing market and slowdown in the broader economy. Nine banks have failed so far this year, including IndyMac, a California-based mortgage lender with assets of $32 billion at the time of its collapse.

But experts contend that the list is a lagging indicator and, as a result, may not provide an accurate picture of the current health of U.S. banking industry.

Typically, the list is published some 8 weeks after all of the nation's banks have reported their latest quarterly results.

Since the failure of IndyMac in mid-July, however, speculation has emerged that regulators may have exercised some discretion about which institutions they put on the confidential list.

The FDIC's first-quarter problem list, released at the end of May, clearly did not have IndyMac on it. That's because the FDIC reported that the 90 banks on the list had a combined $26.3 billion in assets - less than the size of IndyMac. That suggested that the only problem banks at the time were smaller community banks.

Experts say that if IndyMac had been on the list, the total asset size of troubled banks would have been much higher. That might have prompted a witch hunt of sorts, with the market looking for which bank was in trouble and possibly causing a run on that institution.

All of this is helping the Home Seller Assist program created by John Alexander to take off like wild fire and is helping people sell their homes quickly. Agents and loan officers are coming on board in droves to earn a 1% commission when they could not get loans approved before!