How do I know if my bank is financially sound?
Credit rating agencies like Moody's and Standard & Poor's rate banks based on their financial strength and ability to repay debts. A higher rating means your bank is less likely to fail or default on its loans. You can check your bank's credit rating on the agency's website or by contacting your bank directly.
- It's FDIC-insured.
- It has a strong balance sheet.
- Its financial ratios are good.
- Its bank ratings are positive.
The efficiency ratio is calculated as a bank's expenses (excluding interest expense) divided by its total revenue. The main insight that the efficiency ratio provides is how well a bank utilizes its assets in generating revenue. A lower efficiency ratio signals that a bank is operating well.
You can also check for signs such as declining deposits for the current year over last year by looking up your bank on the FDIC website. If a bank has delayed financial reports such as earnings releases, it could mean the bank is struggling with a changing valuation.
Investors can use the net interest margin, the loan-to-assets ratio, and the return-on-assets (ROA) ratio to analyze retail banks. These can be used to analyze a bank's profitability, as well as to understand whether a bank generates more income from loans or other assets.
Bank | Forbes Advisor Rating | Products |
---|---|---|
Chase Bank | 5.0 | Checking, Savings, CDs |
Bank of America | 4.2 | Checking, Savings, CDs |
Wells Fargo Bank | 4.0 | Savings, checking, money market accounts, CDs |
Citi® | 4.0 | Checking, savings, CDs |
Just like banks, credit unions are federally insured; however, credit unions are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Instead, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the federal insurer of credit unions, making them just as safe as traditional banks.
- Capital One 360 Checking: Best online checking account.
- Chase Total Checking®: Best for a large branch network.
- Axos Bank Rewards Checking: Best for online account options.
- Discover® Bank: Best for doing all of your banking at one place.
- Synchrony Bank: Best high-yield savings account.
A common measure of stability at the level of individual institutions is the z-score. It explicitly compares buffers (capitalization and returns) with risk (volatility of returns) to measure a bank's solvency risk.
Bank of America has the Financial Strength Rank of 4.
GuruFocus Financial Strength Rank measures how strong a company's financial situation is.
What banks are most at risk right now?
- First Republic Bank (FRC) . Above average liquidity risk and high capital risk.
- Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) . Above average capital risk.
- KeyCorp (KEY) . Above average capital risk.
- Comerica (CMA) . ...
- Truist Financial (TFC) . ...
- Cullen/Frost Bankers (CFR) . ...
- Zions Bancorporation (ZION) .
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.
suspicious personally identifying information, such as a suspicious address; unusual use of – or suspicious activity relating to – a covered account; and. notices from customers, victims of identity theft, law enforcement authorities, or other businesses about possible identity theft in connection with covered accounts ...
Whether you put all of your eggs in the basket of traditional services like checking and savings accounts and loans, or whether you offer a broader financial services portfolio, most banks yield about 10-15% net profit, with 7-10% return on investment or equity.
Besides loans, banks also invest in bonds and other debt securities, which lose value when interest rates rise. Banks may be forced to sell these at a loss if faced with sudden deposit withdrawals or other funding pressures. The failure of Silicon Valley Bank was a dramatic example of this bond-loss channel.
State | Annual Salary | Monthly Pay |
---|---|---|
California | $78,777 | $6,564 |
Louisiana | $78,602 | $6,550 |
Pennsylvania | $78,576 | $6,548 |
Nebraska | $78,194 | $6,516 |
JPMorgan Chase (JPM)
The inclusion of JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) as one of the bank stocks least likely to fail shouldn't surprise anyone.
Your money is safe at Capital One
The FDIC insures balances up to $250,000 held in various types of consumer and business deposit accounts.
US eases restrictions on Wells Fargo after years of strict oversight following scandal. NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration eased some of the restrictions on banking giant Wells Fargo, saying the bank has sufficiently fixed its toxic culture after years of scandals.
If the bank fails, you'll get your money back. Nearly all banks are FDIC insured. You can look for the FDIC logo at bank teller windows or on the entrance to your bank branch. Credit unions are insured by the National Credit Union Administration.
Can a credit union crash like a bank?
Experts told us that credit unions do fail, like banks (which are also generally safe), but rarely. And deposits up to $250,000 at federally insured credit unions are guaranteed, just as they are at banks.
First, bankers believe it is unfair that credit unions are exempt from federal taxation while the taxes that banks pay represent a significant fraction of their earnings—33 percent last year. Second, bankers believe that credit unions have been allowed to expand far beyond their original purpose.
Ranking | Bank | Headquarters |
---|---|---|
1 | JPMorgan Chase | New York, NY |
2 | Bank of America | Charlotte, North Carolina |
3 | Wells Fargo | San Francisco, California |
4 | Citibank | New York, New York |
What is the No. 1 bank in America? J.P. Morgan Chase is the number one bank in America in terms of total assets held, according to the Federal Reserve.
- JPMORGAN CHASE. Member FDIC.
- U.S. BANK. U.S. Bank, also referred to as U.S. Bancorp, is a large bank based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and currently stands as the fifth-largest banking institution in the U.S. ...
- PNC BANK. ...
- CITIBANK. ...
- WELLS FARGO. ...
- CAPITAL ONE. ...
- M&T BANK CORPORATION. ...
- AGRIBANK.
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