Why Bank Collapses Are Rarer Than You Think—Until They're Not

Since 2000, the U.S. has seen 565 bank failures. Sounds alarming? Not really. The 2008-2012 period gobbled up 82% of them (465 total)—peak year was 2010 with 157 failures. But then things went quiet. From 2015-2020, fewer than 5 banks failed annually. Zero in 2021 and 2022.

Then March 2023 hit. Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse ended an 867-day failure drought—the second-longest since 1933. Two days later, Signature Bank went down.

Here’s why this spooked everyone: size matters. SVB ($209B in assets) was roughly 2,000x larger than the last bank to fail (Kansas’s Almena State Bank, $69M). Signature Bank ($110B) ranked third-largest failure ever. Even in 2010’s bloodbath year, 157 combined failures held less than half of SVB’s assets alone.

Geographically, Georgia and Florida lead with 30% of all post-2000 failures—mostly from the 2008 housing crisis aftermath. California’s banking hub has seen 42 failures; New York just 6.

One quirk: 95% of failures happened on Fridays (FDIC strategy = weekend cleanup time). Signature’s Sunday collapse? Unprecedented—forced emergency overnight damage control.