Checkup for banks: How healthy are they, really?

In January, two Colorado banks, United Western Bank and FirsTier Bank, closed their doors within two weeks. But they were only two of the 23 banks that failed nationwide in the first two months of the current year.

How healthy banks are today can depend on how you look at it. Banks are failing at approximately the same rate as in 2010, when 22 banks failed in February and January. By the end of last year, 157 banks had failed. Still, the FDIC is taking an optimistic approach, predicting that the worst is behind us, according to David Barr, Federal…