Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Banks
What were the biggest U.S. bank failures?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Washington Mutual Bank (2008) is the biggest U.S. bank failure on record, with $307 billion in assets. Next come First Republic Bank (2023), Silicon Valley Bank (2023) and Signature Bank (2023), with $213 billion, $209 billion and $110 billion. Assets are what each bank owned at its last report before it failed, in dollars of the day, not adjusted for inflation, so older failures look smaller than they were.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: FDIC BankFind Suite, bank failures and assistance data (Public domain (U.S. government work; FDIC)) · Data as of Jul 17, 2026
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