Hall of shame: 10 biggest bank failures (2024)

FAQs

What was the largest bank failure ever? ›

First Bank Failure of 2024 Near Anniversary of SVB, Signature, and First Republic Failures. The seizure and subsequent sale of Republic Bank comes a little more than a year after a series of bank failures that rocked the industry in 2023, as Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank shut down in March 2023.

The unexpected collapses of three banks - Silicon Valley and Signature in March 2023 and First Republic in May - put a spotlight on how lenders managed risks to assets and liquidity as the Federal Reserve raised interest rates aggressively to bring surging inflation under control.

Bank Failures This Week – The Citizens Bank, Sac City, Iowa. The latest bank that collapsed was The Citizens Bank, Sac City, Iowa. Citizens Bank's closure marks the fifth bank failure in the nation in 2023.

There were 567 bank failures from 2001 through 2024. See Summary by Year below.

Overall, Bank of America appears to be in a relatively healthy financial position and is not currently in imminent danger of collapse. However, as with any financial institution, there are always risks involved, and customers and investors should always monitor the bank's financial health and risk profile.

Generally, credit unions are viewed as safer than banks, although deposits at both types of financial institutions are usually insured at the same dollar amounts. The FDIC insures deposits at most banks, and the NCUA insures deposits at most credit unions.

What big banks are failing? ›

San Francisco-based First Republic Bank goes down as the second-largest failure in U.S. history. Santa Clara, California-based Silicon Valley Bank follows at number three on the all-time list and New York City-based Signature Bank is the fourth-largest bank to fail.

Consulting firm Klaros Group analyzed about 4,000 U.S. banks and found 282 banks face the dual threat of commercial real estate loans and potential losses tied to higher interest rates. The majority of those banks are smaller lenders with less than $10 billion in assets.

Two major California banks — Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic — have failed. While some banking industry leaders have said the immediate crisis is over, stock prices for other regional banks, including PacWest and Western Alliance, fell this week.

US eases restrictions on Wells Fargo after years of strict oversight following scandal. NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration eased some of the restrictions on banking giant Wells Fargo, saying the bank has sufficiently fixed its toxic culture after years of scandals.

SVB's collapse marked the second largest bank failure in U.S. history after Washington Mutual's in 2008. While bank failures aren't uncommon, it's rare to see banks of SVB's size become insolvent.

For just over one month, Silicon Valley Bank was the second-largest bank failure in US history. That was until First Republic Bank, a California lender that catered to wealthy clients, knocked it off that spot. First Republic was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

When Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank failed in March, they suffered two of the largest bank failures in U.S. history. Today, we released our first report on these bank failures.

Predatory lending in the form of subprime mortgages targeting low-income homebuyers, excessive risk-taking by global financial institutions, a continuous buildup of toxic assets within banks, and the bursting of the United States housing bubble culminated in a "perfect storm", which led to the Great Recession.