Briefing
The 2008 to 2013 wave, year by year
From 2008 to 2013, 489 insured banks failed in the United States, 84% of every failure since 2000. The count peaked in 2010 with 157, and three states, Georgia, Florida and Illinois, accounted for 44% of the closings. Together the failed banks reported $686 billion in assets, and the FDIC's estimated loss on them is $69.2 billion.
Year by year
| Year | Failures | Total assets | Est. loss | Median loss to assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 25 | $372 billion | $17.7 billion | 37% |
| 2009 | 140 | $170 billion | $25.8 billion | 27% |
| 2010 | 157 | $92.1 billion | $15.8 billion | 21% |
| 2011 | 92 | $34.9 billion | $6.4 billion | 23% |
| 2012 | 51 | $11.6 billion | $2.4 billion | 21% |
| 2013 | 24 | $6.0 billion | $1.2 billion | 24% |
The wave started slowly. 2008 had 25 failures, but they included the largest on record, Washington Mutual Bank, which alone held $307 billion. Without it, the other 488 failures of the six years reported $379 billion. The count then jumped to 140 in 2009 and 157 in 2010 before falling back to 24 by 2013.
A wave of small banks
Most of the banks that failed were small: 364 of the 489, or 74%, had less than $500 million in assets at their last report. That is why the loss figures matter more than the count. Small failed banks tended to cost the fund a larger share of their assets, as the cost briefing shows, and the median loss in each of these years stayed above 20% of assets.
Where they failed
Georgia led with 87 failures, ahead of Florida with 70 and Illinois with 56. The full table of states follows; each state page lists every failure there since 1934.
| State | Failures | Share of the wave |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia | 87 | 18% |
| Florida | 70 | 14% |
| Illinois | 56 | 11% |
| California | 39 | 8.0% |
| Minnesota | 22 | 4.5% |
| Washington | 18 | 3.7% |
| Missouri | 16 | 3.3% |
| Arizona | 15 | 3.1% |
| Michigan | 13 | 2.7% |
| Nevada | 12 | 2.5% |
| Texas | 11 | 2.2% |
| Kansas | 9 | 1.8% |
Fridays
Regulators close banks at the end of the business week so the acquirer can reopen the branches on Monday. In this wave 474 of 489 closings (97%) fell on a Friday. The busiest single day was Friday, October 30, 2009, when nine banks were closed. Each year page shows these clusters as stacked squares, week by week.
When no buyer came
In 18 failures of the period no bank agreed to take over the deposits, and the FDIC paid insured depositors directly. All the others were taken over by another bank, usually under a purchase and assumption agreement. The banks that did most of that buying are in who takes over failed banks.
The explorer, set to 2008 to 2013, lists all 489 failures and can narrow them to one state or size.
The largest failures of the wave
A handful of large banks account for most of the assets. The eight largest failures of 2008 to 2013:
- Washington Mutual Bank of Henderson, Nevada: $307 billion, September 25, 2008
- IndyMac Bank of Pasadena, California: $30.7 billion, July 11, 2008
- Colonial Bank of Montgomery, Alabama: $25.5 billion, August 14, 2009
- Guaranty Bank of Austin, Texas: $13.5 billion, August 21, 2009
- BankUnited, FSB of Coral Gables, Florida: $13.1 billion, May 21, 2009
- Downey Savings and Loan Association, F.A. of Newport Beach, California: $12.8 billion, November 21, 2008
- AmTrust Bank of Cleveland, Ohio: $11.4 billion, December 4, 2009
- United Commercial Bank of San Francisco, California: $10.9 billion, November 6, 2009
Together these eight reported $425 billion, 62% of the wave's total.
Young banks
Many of the failed banks had not been in business long. Of the 487 failures in the wave with a founding year in the FDIC's records, 116 (24%) were less than ten years old when they closed. On bank pages an unusually short life shows up in the opening paragraph.
Who took them over
The most active acquirers of the wave were State Bank and Trust Company (12 failed banks), Ameris Bank (10) and U.S. Bank N.A. (10).
Each year's largest and costliest
- 2008: 25 failures. Largest Washington Mutual Bank ($307 billion); costliest IndyMac Bank ($12.0 billion).
- 2009: 140 failures. Largest Colonial Bank ($25.5 billion); costliest BankUnited ($5.2 billion).
- 2010: 157 failures. Largest Westernbank Puerto Rico ($10.8 billion), also the costliest.
- 2011: 92 failures. Largest Superior Bank ($3.0 billion), also the costliest.
- 2012: 51 failures. Largest Tennessee Commerce Bank ($1.0 billion), also the costliest.
- 2013: 24 failures. Largest First National Bank also operating as The National Bank of El Paso ($3.1 billion), also the costliest.
Spread evenly, the estimated loss of the wave comes to $142 million per failed bank, but the average hides the spread: the costliest single failure of the period accounts for 17% of the whole six years' losses.
Sources
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: BankFind Suite failures, institutions and financials data; Failed Bank List. All figures computed by this site from those records; see how to read the data.