Briefing
The savings and loan crisis in numbers
In the FDIC's records the savings and loan crisis, counted here as 1980 to 1994, produced 2,359 bank failures, plus 576 assistance transactions in which a troubled institution was propped up rather than closed. Failures peaked at 530 in 1989. The failed institutions reported $659 billion in assets, and the estimated loss to the insurance funds is $128 billion, more than the $108 billion estimated for every failure since 2000 combined.
Not only savings associations
The name points at thrifts, and 933 of the failures, 40%, were savings associations or savings banks. The rest were commercial banks, and many of them failed in the same states and the same years as the thrifts. The FDIC records split the failures across four insurance funds:
| Insurance fund | Failures | Total assets | Est. loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| FDIC fund (banks, to 1989) | 951 | $89.7 billion | $16.7 billion |
| Resolution Trust Corporation | 745 | $394 billion | $76.0 billion |
| Bank Insurance Fund (1989 on) | 530 | $135 billion | $14.0 billion |
| FSLIC (savings associations, to 1989) | 133 | $40.3 billion | $21.2 billion |
The Resolution Trust Corporation, created in 1989 to take over failed savings associations, handled 745 of them, with an estimated loss of $76.0 billion. Before it existed, the FSLIC closed 133; its losses of $21.2 billion on $40.3 billion of assets show how deep the holes were by the time those institutions were shut.
Texas at the centre
674 of the failures, 29%, were in Texas, by far the most of any state. California followed with 180, then Oklahoma (150) and Louisiana (131). The Texas page shows how sharply the state's failures rose after 1985 and fell away after 1992.
The largest and the deepest
The largest failure of the period was First RepublicBank Dallas, National Association, closed in 1988 with $17.1 billion in assets. The deepest loss relative to size among the larger failures (over $500 million in assets) was Sunbelt Savings Association of Texas of Dallas, Texas, closed in 1988: an estimated $3.8 billion against $2.2 billion in reported assets.
Year by year
| Year | Failures | Assistance | Total assets | Est. loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 10 | 12 | $239 million | $28.7 million |
| 1981 | 9 | 31 | $1.4 billion | $31.0 million |
| 1982 | 34 | 85 | $4.7 billion | $388 million |
| 1983 | 50 | 49 | $3.8 billion | $1.1 billion |
| 1984 | 83 | 23 | $4.2 billion | $1.1 billion |
| 1985 | 139 | 41 | $9.9 billion | $2.9 billion |
| 1986 | 162 | 42 | $15.3 billion | $8.2 billion |
| 1987 | 217 | 45 | $15.8 billion | $6.0 billion |
| 1988 | 232 | 238 | $48.4 billion | $12.6 billion |
| 1989 | 530 | 4 | $164 billion | $53.4 billion |
| 1990 | 381 | 1 | $147 billion | $18.8 billion |
| 1991 | 268 | 3 | $143 billion | $15.2 billion |
| 1992 | 179 | 2 | $89.6 billion | $7.0 billion |
| 1993 | 50 | 0 | $10.0 billion | $900 million |
| 1994 | 15 | 0 | $1.6 billion | $191 million |
Two caveats apply to every figure here. The amounts are in dollars of each year, so a 1988 loss counts the same as a 2023 loss of the same size. And assistance transactions carry their own estimated costs in the FDIC data, which are not included in the failure totals above. Continental Illinois, assisted in 1984, is the best-known example; it is listed on the 1984 page.
Every failure of the period can be filtered in the explorer.
Who failed: charters
By charter, the failures of 1980 to 1994 split into 746 state banks outside the Federal Reserve System, 681 savings associations, 566 national banks, 252 savings banks and 114 state banks that were Federal Reserve members.
The largest cases for the Resolution Trust Corporation
- Gibraltar Savings of Simi Valley, California, 1989: $13.4 billion
- HomeFed Bank, Federal Savings Bank of San Diego, California, 1992: $12.2 billion
- City Federal Savings Bank of Somerset, New Jersey, 1989: $9.8 billion
- Imperial Savings Association of San Diego, California, 1990: $9.6 billion
- Great American Bank, a Federal Savings Bank of San Diego, California, 1991: $9.5 billion
Closing days
The busiest single day of the period was Thursday, March 16, 1989, with 51 institutions closed. In 243 failures no acquirer was found and insured depositors were paid directly, 10% of the total, a larger share than after 2000.
The largest failure of each year
Year by year, the biggest closing of the period:
- 1980: The Mission State Bank & Trust Company of Mission, KS, $86.4 million
- 1981: First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Rochester of Rochester, NY, $1.2 billion
- 1982: LaSalle Bank, F.S.B. of Chicago, IL, $3.4 billion
- 1983: The First National Bank of Midland of Midland, TX, $1.4 billion
- 1984: San Marino Savings and Loan Association of San Marino, CA, $857 million
- 1985: Sunrise Savings and Loan Association of Lake Worth, FL, $1.5 billion
- 1986: Western Savings Association of Dallas, TX, $2.0 billion
- 1987: Freedom Savings and Loan Association of Tampa, FL, $1.9 billion
- 1988: First RepublicBank Dallas, National Association of Dallas, TX, $17.1 billion
- 1989: Gibraltar Savings of Simi Valley, CA, $13.4 billion
- 1990: Imperial Savings Association of San Diego, CA, $9.6 billion
- 1991: Bank of New England, National Association of Boston, MA, $13.4 billion
- 1992: HomeFed Bank, Federal Savings Bank of San Diego, CA, $12.2 billion
- 1993: Western Federal Savings and Loan of Marina Del Ray, CA, $3.8 billion
- 1994: The Bank of Hartford, Inc. of Hartford, CT, $321 million
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.