by Calculated Risk on 1/30/2010 05:44:00 PM

There have been 183 bank failures in this cycle (starting in 2007):

FDIC Bank Failures by Year
2007	3
2008	25
2009	140
2010	15
Total	183

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The first graph shows bank failures by week in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The FDIC is off to a fast start in 2010.

My prediction is the FDIC will close more banks in 2010 than in 2009 (more than 140), but fewer banks than in 1989 - peak of the S&L crisis (534 banks).

The second graph shows bank failures by year since the FDIC was started.

The 140 bank failures last year was the highest total since 1992 (181 bank failures).

And since people always ask, the third graph is of bank failures by number of institutions and assets, from the December Congressional Oversight Panel’s Troubled Asset Relief Program report.

Note: This is through Nov 30th for 2009.

From the report (page 45):

Figure 11 shows numbers of failed banks, and total assets of failed banks since 1970. It shows that, although the number of failed banks was significantly higher in the late 1980s than it is now, the aggregate assets of failed banks during the current crisis far outweighs those from the 1980s. At the high point in 1988 and 1989, 763 banks failed, with total assets of $309 billion.¹⁶⁷ Compare this to 149 banks failing in 2008 and 2009, with total assets of $473 billion.¹⁶⁸

Note: This is in 2005 dollars and this includes the failure of WaMu in 2008 with $307 billion in assets that didn't impact the DIF.

I'll update the losses for the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) over the next few weeks.