Seven banks were closed today. Is that a big number?

I just tweeted this but I am so amazed I have to report it here too.

Seven banks failed today. That is more the same number as were reported on July 2. But for a recent history perspective it is quite high.

Indeed from January 1 2000 to December 31, 2008 53 banks failed.

Data from FDIC

Bank Failing July 24, 2009: 7

Bank Failings per year

2000 02
2001 04
2002 11
2003 03
2004 04
2005 00
2006 00
2007 03
2008 26
2009 64*

All numbers annual except 2009 which is through July 24/2009.

From this relatively short term perspective, the number of failed banks looks quite large.

HOWEVER, from a longer term perspective this number is quite small. In the late 1980s, this number was above 500 per year!


From BestCashCow



So while the banks may be larger this time around (although today's were quite small), from a historic perspective, today's bank number of bank closings was not all that great.


* Note these numbers have been corrected from those I reported on twitter originally (I wrote down 58 not 53 for the 2000-2008 period).