FDIC Bank Failures in 2008 by State
January 06, 2009
The final tally of banks which failed in 2008 was 25 which includes mega-banks Washington Mutual Bank and IndyMac Bank with over $1 billion in deposits. The FDIC insurance fund took a mighty hit, but with an increase in premiums and the ability to slowly sell-off assets of acquired banks the insurance fund is not in as bad as shape as reported in some media stories. The number of bank failures by state were:
Georgia (5)
California (5)
Nevada (2)
Texas (2)
Florida (2)
Missouri (2)
Illinois (1)
Michigan (1)
Washington (1)
West Virginia (1)
Kansas (1)
Minnesota (1)
Arkansas (1)
Of course California is the nation's most populous state with over 37 million people and Georgia has less than 10 million, so Georgia will win the tie-breaker as the worst banking state for 2008. Large states including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New Jersey made it the whole year without a single bank failure.
Predictions from banking experts range from 10 to 50 bank failures for 2009, but as long as depositors stay within the insurance limits they can rest easy that the FDIC still has a perfect track record of paying out dollar-for-dollar on insurance claims.
