The pace of U.S. bank failures has slowed sharply since peaking in 2010 with 157. Since the start of 2008, the year the financial crisis erupted, 445 banks have failed. But their depositors haven’t lost any money. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. insures accounts up to $250,000 per depositor per bank.
Some numbers related to the bank failures:
From 2008 through 2011, bank failures cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $88 billion. The FDIC expects failures from 2012 through 2016 to cost at least $12 billion more. The insurance fund is replenished by fees paid by banks.
There are 7,292 U.S. banks, down from 8,533 as of Jan. 1, 2008. The ranks have been thinned by closings and mergers.
The 157 failures in 2010 were the most in any year since the height of the savings and loan crisis in 1992. The wave of collapses started in 2008 with 25. The number jumped to 140 in 2009. Ninety-two banks failed in 2011. So far this year, 31 have failed.
Since mid-2010, nearly all the failed banks have been small. The five biggest banks to fail since 2008 are: Washington Mutual, based in Seattle, September 2008, $307 billion in assets; IndyMac Bank, Pasadena, Calif., July 2008, $32 billion; Colonial Bank, Montgomery, Ala., August 2009, $25 billion; Guaranty Bank, Austin, Texas, August 2009, $13 billion; and BankUnited, Coral Gables, Fla., May 2009, $12.8 billion.
The states with the most bank failures from 2008 through 2012 are Georgia, 79; Florida, 62; Illinois, 49; and California, 39.
The number of employees at U.S. banks fell to 2,102,226 as of March 31, from 2,212,766 as of March 31, 2008.
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