How to read the data

This site lists every bank failure and assistance transaction in the FDIC's records from 1934 to 2026: 3,526 failures and 593 assistance transactions. This page explains where each figure comes from, what it covers and what it leaves out.

Where the records come from

The list of failures, with closing dates, total assets, deposits, the resolution method and the estimated loss, is the FDIC's BankFind Suite failures data (snapshot of August 25, 2026). Bank names, cities and acquirer names for failures since October 2000 follow the FDIC's Failed Bank List, which spells them in normal case; older names are taken from the FDIC's institution records. Two failures announced after the BankFind snapshot, Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank (August 21, 2026) and Nano Banc (September 25, 2026), come from the Failed Bank List, the FDIC's closing announcements and the banks' June 30, 2026 Call Reports.

How to read a bank page

The line above the bank's name gives the closing day and place. The opening paragraph holds the two to four facts that set this failure apart from the others: a rank, a record, a long gap since the state's previous failure, an unusually young or old bank. The panel beside it lists the basic figures once. The chart below shows every quarterly report the bank filed in its last eight years: grey bars are total assets, the green top of each bar is equity capital (the part of the assets funded by the owners rather than by depositors and lenders), and the red bar after the closing line is the estimated loss on the same dollar scale. Banks without quarterly reports in the FDIC's files have no chart.

Bank pages exist for 240 failures: those since 2000 with quarterly reports and at least two distinguishing facts, plus the 30 largest failures before 2000. When one acquirer took over several banks on the same day, usually the banks of one holding company, the largest of them has the page and lists the others. Every other failure appears in the year, state and acquirer lists and in the explorer. Years with at least six failures (four since 2000), states with at least eight and acquirers of at least four failed banks have their own pages.

What each figure means

Total assets and deposits are from the bank's last quarterly report before it closed, in dollars of that day. They are not adjusted for inflation, so a 1989 dollar and a 2023 dollar count the same. Ranks by size use these figures.
Estimated loss is the FDIC's estimate of what the failure cost the insurance fund, as of July 31, 2026. It is revised as the FDIC sells the failed bank's remaining assets, so it can go up or down. For the two newest failures it is the preliminary figure from the closing announcement. A small number of records show a gain; they are shown as no loss. Assistance transactions carry no loss estimate.
Loss to assets divides the estimated loss by total assets. Medians on year pages use every failure of that year with both figures.
Insurance fund: the fund that bore the loss. Banks were insured by the FDIC's fund until 1989, then the Bank Insurance Fund; savings associations by the FSLIC until 1989, then the Resolution Trust Corporation and the Savings Association Insurance Fund. Since 2006 one Deposit Insurance Fund covers all.
Resolution: purchase and assumption means another bank took over deposits and some assets; an insured deposit transfer moves only insured deposits to another bank; a payout means the FDIC paid insured depositors itself.
Equity to assets and loans past due or not accruing come from the Call Reports as published in BankFind.
Age is the closing year minus the founding year in the FDIC's institution record. Records with no founding date, or with the placeholder date of January 1, 1934, show no age.

Ranks and comparisons

"Largest" and "costliest" ranks count failures only, never assistance transactions, across all 3,526 failures since 1934 unless the sentence names a smaller group: a year, a state, or the 583 failures since 2000. Ties share a rank. Loss ratios are ranked among failures since 2000. A state's previous failure is the one closest before it in time, whatever its size. Acquirers are grouped by the name and state the FDIC recorded, ignoring differences in spelling and punctuation; a bank that later merged or changed its name appears under each name it used.

What this site does not do

It reports history. It does not rate or comment on any bank operating today, and nothing here is advice on where to keep money. The FDIC's own pages explain deposit insurance.

Processing log

source rows: BankFind failures API: 4,117
source rows: Failed Bank List CSV: 578
CSV rows matched to a BankFind record (cert + closing date): 576
failure newer than the BankFind snapshot added from CSV + FDIC press release + Call Report: 1 (Tioga-Franklin Savings Bank)
failure newer than the BankFind snapshot added from CSV + FDIC press release + Call Report: 1 (Nano Banc)
institution names stored in upper case, converted to title case: 1
records with a documented correction from etl/overrides.json (truncated acquirer names, one long name): 10
records with no positive total assets (kept in counts, excluded from size ranks): 154
deposits above 130 % of assets (flag only, values kept as reported): 106
negative estimated loss set to 0 (a gain to the fund is shown as no loss): 12
estimated loss below $500 (rounding residue) set to 0: 17
founding date missing or the 1 Jan 1934 placeholder (age not shown): 516
state code not recognised: 0
Call Report series found (>= 4 quarters before closing): 613 (of 613 page candidates)
last Call Report total assets differ >2 % from the failure record (failure record kept): 7

Sources

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: BankFind Suite (failures, institutions and financials data, api.fdic.gov), the Failed Bank List (fdic.gov/bank-failures/failed-bank-list) and FDIC press releases. Works of the US federal government are in the public domain in the United States. Retrieved October 28, 2026. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the FDIC.