Bank Failures Down in 2011 From Previous Year

Federal regulators closed 92 banks throughout 2011, according to data released this week by Charlottesville, Va.-based financial information services firm SNL Financial.

In 2010, there were 157 bank closures, and 140 banks were shuttered in 2009. Regulators did not close any banks for the week ended Jan. 6, meaning that 2012 saw a failure-free New Year's week.

Just as the number of banks that have failed declined, the total amount of failed bank assets has also dramatically dipped. In 2009, the 140 closed banks accounted for almost $200 billion in total failed assets. In 2010, the total failed bank assets was around $100 billion, and that figure dipped below $50 billion in 2011.

The majority of the banks that were closed in 2011 had total assets of less than $2 billion. In 2011, the FDIC entered loss-share agreements with the buyers of 58 of the 92 closed banks. In 2010, the FDIC entered loss-share agreements with 130 of the 157 failed banks. The median cost to the deposit insurance fund at the time of announcement as a percentage of the failed banks' assets was 23 percent in 2011, the same as in 2010 but lower than the 29 percent median cost in 2009.

Though bank failures dropped in 2011 as compared to the previous year, the number of closed banks was still much greater than during the 10-year period ending in 2007. Over the last 20 years, 1989 saw the highest amount of closed banks with more than 500.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio