American Banking and Market News (2024)

FAQs

What is the largest bank failure in US history? ›

The receivership of Washington Mutual Bank by federal regulators on September 26, 2008, was the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

The Short Answer: Yes. Share: The IRS probably already knows about many of your financial accounts, and the IRS can get information on how much is there. But, in reality, the IRS rarely digs deeper into your bank and financial accounts unless you're being audited or the IRS is collecting back taxes from you.

The average American has $65,100 in savings — excluding retirement assets — according to Northwestern Mutual's 2023 Planning & Progress Study. That's a 5% increase over the $62,000 reported in 2022.

This slowed significantly from 2015 to 2020, when the U.S. saw an average of fewer than five bank failures per year. Zero banks failed in both 2021 and 2022. Bank collapses were similarly uncommon in the early 2000s.

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.

2024 in Brief

There are no bank failures in 2024. See detailed descriptions below. For more bank failure information on a specific year, select a date from the drop down menu to the right or select a month within the graph.

Certain retirement accounts: While the IRS can levy some retirement accounts, such as IRAs and 401(k) plans, they generally cannot touch funds in retirement accounts that have specific legal protections, like certain pension plans and annuities.

You can deposit as much as you need to, but your financial institution may be required to report your deposit to the federal government. That doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong—it just creates a paper trail that investigators can use if they suspect you're involved in any criminal activity.

Financial institutions are required to report large deposits of over $10,000. However, if the bank reports your cash deposits before you do, you may end up with a fine or, worse yet, have your account frozen. There are also a few other situations that can put you on the IRS's radar.

How many Americans have $200,000 in savings? ›

More Than Half of Americans Have Less Than $10,000 Saved

Going up a little more, just 6% have between $100,001 and $200,000 saved. Few Americans have saved more than $300,000: 4% have between $350,001 and $500,000. 4% have saved between $500,001 and $750,000 and another 4%, have more than $750,000 saved.

There are estimated to be a little over 8 million households in the US with a net worth of $3 million or more.

Recently, a report posted on the Social Science Research Network found that 186 banks in the United States are at risk of failure or collapse due to rising interest rates and a high proportion of uninsured deposits.

JPMorgan Chase, the financial institution that owns Chase Bank, topped our experts' list because it's designated as the world's most systemically important bank on the 2023 G-SIB list. This designation means it has the highest loss absorbency requirements of any bank, providing more protection against financial crisis.

Silicon Valley Bank's 48-hour collapse led to the second-largest failure of a financial institution in US history. Silicon Valley Bank headquarters in Santa Clara, California, US, on Thursday, March 9, 2023.

Please update your browser or turn off ad blocker to continue to watch. 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.

There still hasn't been a bank failure in 2024. The last Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) bank to fail was Citizens Bank of Sac City, Iowa. That was the fifth FDIC bank failure of 2023, a year with some of the largest bank failures in U.S. history.

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.