The 10 Biggest U.S. Bank Failures
The latest, IndyMac, will move to No. 3 on the list
With an estimated $32 billion in assets, IndyMac Bank of Pasadena, Calif., which federal regulators seized Friday, is poised to become the third-largest bank failure in American history. Here is a list of the top 10 failures, based on total assets, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data covering 1934 through 2007.
1. Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust, Chicago (1984)
Total assets: $40.0 billion
2. First Republic Bank, Dallas (1988)
Total assets: $32.5 billion
3. American S&LA, Stockton, Calif. (1988)
Total assets: $30.2 billion
4. Bank of New England, Boston (1991)
Total assets: $21.7 billion
5. MCorp, Dallas (1989)
Total assets: $18.5 billion
6. Gibraltar Savings, Simi Valley, Calif. (1989)
Total assets: $15.1 billion
7. First City Bancorporation, Houston (1988)
Total assets: $13.0 billion
8. Homefed Bank, San Diego (1992)
Total assets: $12.2 billion
9. Southeast Bank, Miami (1991)
Total assets: $11.0 billion
10. Goldome, Buffalo (1991)
Total assets: $9.9 billion
Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Bank Failure Facts
- According to the FDIC, from 1934 through 2007, there were only two years with no bank failures, 2005 and 2006.
- The year during that period with the most bank failures was 1989, when 534 banks closed their doors.
- During the savings-and-loan crisis (1986-95), 2,377 banks failed, representing 67 percent of the 3,559 bank failures from 1934 through May 2008. At the peak of the crisis (1988-1989), 1,004 banks failed, a rate of one failure every 1.38 days.
Bank Failures by Decade
- 2000-2007: 32
- 1990-1999: 925
- 1980-1989: 2,036
- 1970-1979: 79
- 1960-1969: 44
- 1950-1959: 28
- 1940-1949: 99
- 1934-1939: 312
Reader Comments
While Americans sleep in carborad houses and machine packings thrown out , the American aid receivers in so called poor countries eat well and sleep in cozy blankets given by American Government. The hype ended
when Bush under pressure asked banks to ignore security norms on martagages. In two years time the economy collapsed like house of playing cards.
No mercy when you lend rule for lender. Don't take it easy with a loan on your head. work hard avoid luxury pay promptly rule for borrower.
Pratima
Response to Darrow
Read this:
MORTGAGE PRESSURES
Under former President Bill Clinton, the entire federal government put massive pressure on banks to grant more mortgages to the poor and minorities. Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Andrew Cuomo, investigated Fannie Mae for racial discrimination and proposed that 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers by the year 2001.
Instead of looking at "outdated criteria," such as the mortgage applicant's credit history and ability to make a down payment, banks were encouraged to consider nontraditional measures of credit worthiness.
Threatening lawsuits, Clinton's Federal Reserve demanded that banks treat welfare payments and unemployment benefits as valid income sources to qualify for mortgage. That isn't a joke --- it's a fact.
So who's to blame for all this mess?
bank failures
To the genius that lays the blame for bank failures and investment house crumblings on Barack Obama: He was organizing in Chicago, when Phil Graham and the rest of McCain's campaign staff were lobbying/ voting for loosening of banking regulations that prepped the industry for collapse. Wall Street avarice and the control it has had over this regime is not laughable anymore. One can only imagine the chaos if Bush and McCain had their way with Social Security privatization. It is equally odd that we tax and spend Dems left a huge Treasury surplus after paying off the deficits of the fiscally conservative Republicans only to have the same Republicans spend that surplus and create the largest deficit in our nation's history. It wasn't the "Contract for America", it was the"Contract on America" ruining our standard of living and our respect world wide. The mantra "Get the Government off your Back" is just elitist code for deregulation and more taxes for the middle class. Please take a close look at McCain's tax plan. Yes, everyone gets a tax cut, admittedly larger for those making the most money. But there is a problem with the ledger. All of the tax cuts are on the leftside of the ledger, with NOTHING on the revenue side.I'm no accountant, but someone needs to explain how an enterprise as deeply in debt as the U.S., can survive under McCain's plan. And finally, what is different about this crowd compared to those that founded this country? Weren't they just rich folk who didn't want to pay Taxes?
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