What were the biggest U.S. bank failures?

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.

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Key facts

Measure: Assets when it failed, dollars. Written from the data below.

  • Washington Mutual Bank (2008) has the highest figure, $307B, followed by First Republic Bank (2023) ($213B) and Silicon Valley Bank (2023) ($209B).
  • California National Bank (2009) has the lowest figure, $7.78B, followed by Empire of America FSB (1990) ($8.17B) and CenTrust Bank, SB (1990) ($8.22B).
  • The highest is 39 times the lowest.

Source and date

Source
FDIC BankFind Suite, bank failures and assistance data
License
Public domain (U.S. government work; FDIC)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “What were the biggest U.S. bank failures?” Chart. Data: FDIC BankFind Suite, bank failures and assistance data, https://banks.data.fdic.gov/bankfind-suite/failures (data as of July 17, 2026). https://chart.ly/charts/biggest-bank-failures (accessed October 18, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Bank (year it failed) Assets when it failed, dollars
Washington Mutual Bank (2008) 307,021,614,000
First Republic Bank (2023) 212,638,872,000
Silicon Valley Bank (2023) 209,026,000,000
Signature Bank (2023) 110,363,650,000
IndyMac Bank F.S.B (2008) 30,698,512,000
Colonial Bank (2009) 25,455,112,000
First RepublicBank-Dallas (1988) 17,085,655,000
Guaranty Bank (2009) 13,464,352,000
Bank of New England (1991) 13,428,614,000
Gibraltar Savings, FA (1989) 13,382,327,000
BankUnited, FSB (2009) 13,111,463,000
Downey Savings and Loan Association, F.A. (2008) 12,779,371,000
HomeFed Bank, FA (1992) 12,175,590,000
AmTrust Bank (2009) 11,438,990,000
Southeast Bank (1991) 11,026,691,000
United Commercial Bank (2009) 10,895,336,000
Westernbank Puerto Rico (2010) 10,797,345,000
Goldome (1991) 9,890,866,000
City Savings, FSB (1989) 9,813,776,000
Imperial Federal Savings Assoc. (1990) 9,581,584,000
Great American FSA (1991) 9,523,603,000
Franklin FSA (1990) 9,258,163,000
CenTrust Bank, SB (1990) 8,217,563,000
Empire of America FSB (1990) 8,173,572,000
California National Bank (2009) 7,781,100,000

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