When the history of the current financial crisis is written, it will be replete with stories of savvy investors who bought failed banks' assets from the FDIC for pennies on the dollar and recovered not just dimes, but quarters or better.

Many investors had hoped to jump directly into purchasing failed institutions from the FDIC, but the path of least resistance has proven to be equity stakes in open and operating institutions.

FDIC-assisted transactions were the subject of a Web seminar hosted by American Banker in early April. What follows are excerpts from the Q&A portion of the Web seminar.