Briefing
Who takes over failed banks
Between 2000 and 2026, 318 different banks took over at least one failed bank, according to the acquirers named in FDIC records. Most did it once: 221 of them appear a single time. At the other end, 16 banks took over five or more failed banks each, 119 in all, led by First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company with 12 and State Bank and Trust Company with 12.
What counts as an acquirer here
The acquirer is the bank the FDIC names in its failure record as taking over the failed bank's deposits, usually together with some of its loans and branches. Names are kept as recorded at the time. Banks that later merged, were bought or renamed are not combined, and two different banks that happen to share a name, such as several called "Central Bank", are kept apart by the state of their headquarters. 31 failures since 2000 had no acquirer at all.
The most active buyers
| Acquirer | Based in | Failed banks | Their assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company | Raleigh, NC | 12 | $218 billion |
| State Bank and Trust Company | Pinehurst, GA | 12 | $4.1 billion |
| Ameris Bank | Moultrie, GA | 10 | $2.1 billion |
| U.S. Bank N.A. | Minneapolis, MN | 10 | $21.6 billion |
| Stearns Bank, N.A. | St. Cloud, MN | 9 | $1.7 billion |
| Community & Southern Bank | Carrollton, GA | 8 | $3.2 billion |
| Bank of the Ozarks | Little Rock, AR | 7 | $2.5 billion |
| Centennial Bank | Conway, AR | 7 | $1.6 billion |
| CenterState Bank of Florida, N.A. | Winter Haven, FL | 6 | $1.1 billion |
| Central Bank | Stillwater, MN | 6 | $1.1 billion |
| MB Financial Bank, N.A. | Chicago, IL | 6 | $9.1 billion |
| Republic Bank of Chicago | Oak Brook, IL | 6 | $916 million |
| Columbia State Bank | Tacoma, WA | 5 | $2.1 billion |
| Premier American Bank, N.A. | Miami, FL | 5 | $2.1 billion |
| Sunwest Bank | Tustin, CA | 5 | $559 million |
Counting by assets instead of deals gives a different list. The largest totals belong to JP Morgan Chase Bank ($520 billion), First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company ($218 billion), Flagstar Bank, N.A. ($110 billion), each built on one or two very large failures rather than a series of small ones.
Buying close to home
Of the failures since 2000 with a named acquirer and a bank page here, 63% went to a bank headquartered in the same state. Georgia, the state with the most failures since 2000, shows it clearly: of its 88 failures with a named acquirer, 61 went to a Georgia bank. 22 Georgia-based acquirers appear in the record, among them State Bank and Trust Company, Ameris Bank, Community & Southern Bank.
Reading an acquirer page
Each acquirer with four or more deals has a page listing every failed bank it took over, with dates, places, assets and estimated losses, and a timeline of the deals. The pages describe the FDIC record only: they say nothing about the acquiring bank's condition then or now. The acquirer list has all 31 of them.
How many buyers each year
In the busiest years many different banks were buying. The table counts distinct acquirers per year.
| Year | Failures | Distinct acquirers |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 25 | 23 |
| 2009 | 140 | 89 |
| 2010 | 157 | 107 |
| 2011 | 92 | 69 |
| 2012 | 51 | 40 |
| 2013 | 24 | 22 |
One deal, but a large one
Some of the largest takeovers were made by banks that appear only once in the record: Flagstar Bank, N.A. took over Signature Bank ($110 billion); BBVA Compass took over Guaranty Bank ($13.5 billion); BankUnited took over BankUnited, FSB ($13.1 billion).
Out-of-state buyers
The largest failure since 2000 taken over by a bank from another state was Washington Mutual Bank of Nevada, which went to JP Morgan Chase Bank of Ohio.
The five most active buyers, deal by deal
- First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company: 12 failed banks in California, Washington, Florida, Colorado, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 2009 to 2023; the largest was Silicon Valley Bank ($209 billion).
- State Bank and Trust Company: 12 failed banks in Georgia, 2009 to 2011; the largest was Security Bank of Bibb County ($944 million).
- Ameris Bank: 10 failed banks in Georgia, Florida, 2009 to 2012; the largest was Darby Bank & Trust Co. ($655 million).
- U.S. Bank N.A.: 10 failed banks in California, Illinois, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, 2009 to 2011; the largest was California National Bank ($7.8 billion).
- Stearns Bank, N.A.: 9 failed banks in Georgia, Minnesota, Florida, Arizona, 2008 to 2012; the largest was First State Bank ($448 million).
Some buyers were neighbours in the most literal sense: in 36 failures since 2000 the acquirer was based in the same city as the failed bank.
Where the buyers were based
Counting acquirers by the state of their headquarters, the most came from Illinois (32), Florida (24), Georgia (22). Those are also the three states with the most failures since 2000, which fits the pattern of local takeovers. Banks from 45 states and territories in all appear as acquirers in the record.
Measured by deposits rather than deals, the largest single buyer since 2000 is JP Morgan Chase Bank, which took over $365 billion in deposits across two failed banks.
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.