The recent failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the shutdown of Signature Bank of New York has sparked fears of a wider financial meltdown. Both are ranked among the top 30 U.S. banks by assets, but they are far smaller than the country’s biggest financial institutions, which measure their assets in the trillions.
Top 50 banks in the U.S., by assets
JPMorgan Chase
Bank assets
$3.2T
$3T
$3T
500B
Bank of America
$2.4T
Citibank
$2T
$1.8T
Wells Fargo
$1.7T
$1T
Top 16
Silicon Valley
Bank
Top 29
Signature
Bank
$209B
$110B
0
Data as of Dec. 31, 2022
Top 50 banks in the U.S., by assets
JPMorgan Chase
Bank assets
$3.2T
$3T
$3T
500B
Bank of America
$2.4T
Citibank
$2T
$1.8T
Wells Fargo
$1.7T
$1T
Top 16
Silicon Valley
Bank
Top 29
Signature
Bank
$209B
$110B
0
Data as of Dec. 31, 2022
Top 50 banks in the U.S., by assets
Bank assets
$3T
JPMorgan Chase
500B
Top 16
$3.2T
Silicon Valley Bank
Citibank
$209B
$1.8T
Wells Fargo
Bank of America
Top 29
$1.7T
$1T
$2T
$3T
0
$2.4T
Signature Bank
$110B
Data as of Dec. 31, 2022
Top 50 banks in the U.S., by assets
Bank assets
$3T
JPMorgan Chase
500B
Top 16
Citibank
$3.2T
Silicon Valley Bank
$1.8T
$209B
Top 29
Wells Fargo
Bank of America
$1T
$2T
$3T
0
Signature Bank
$1.7T
$2.4T
$110B
Data as of Dec. 31, 2022
The two banks catered to the tech industry, which has retreated from the enormous growth of the early pandemic era and is now beset with layoffs. Silicon Valley Bank was crucial to venture capital firms. Signature served as a key financial institution for the cryptocurrency industry.
SVB’s demise is the second-largest failure of a federally insured bank, behind only Washington Mutual, which crashed at the start of the Great Recession in 2008. Since 2001, more than 500 banks have failed, but the vast majority were in the wake of the Great Recession, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data shows.
Recent bank failures have paled in comparison to today’s closures. Two banks that failed in the fall of 2020 totaled just over $200 million. SVB alone has over $200 billion in assets.
Bank failures since 2001
2001
Bank assets
$100B
2003
$1B
2005
Washington Mutual held $307B
in assets when it failed in 2008
2007
2009
2011
2013
440 banks
failed between
2009 and 2012
2015
2017
2019
2021
Silicon
Valley Bank
Signature
Bank
$209B
$110B
2023
Bank failures since 2001
2001
Bank assets
$100B
$1B
2003
2005
Washington Mutual held $307B
in assets when it failed in 2008
2007
2009
2011
2013
440 banks
failed between
2009 and 2012
2015
2017
2019
2021
Signature
Bank
Silicon
Valley Bank
$209B
$110B
2023
Bank failures since 2001
440 banks failed
between 2009
and 2012
Washington Mutual held $307B
in assets when it failed in 2008
Signature Bank
$110B
Bank assets
Silicon
Valley Bank
$100B
$209B
$1B
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
Bank failures since 2001
440 banks failed between
2009 and 2012
Signature Bank
$110B
Washington Mutual held $307B
in assets when it failed in 2008
Bank assets
Silicon Valley Bank
$100B
$209B
$1B
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011
2013
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
Late Sunday, the U.S. government announced that it would guarantee all deposits at SVB and Signature. But other banks are now under intense scrutiny, as their size and the nature of their assets might reveal heightened exposure or pose systemic risks to the financial system, now on edge.
Data on U.S. banks by assets is from the Federal Reserve. Bank failures since 2001 come from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.