Illinois gains ground on Georgia

It was a busy Thursday for the FDIC as seven banks were shut down, prompting the question, "What the heck is going on in Illinois?" Are they trying to challenge Georgia, the clear leader in failed banks? MarketWatch reports that the "Prairie State" is catching up quickly.

Seven banks bring 2009 U.S. failures total to 52
Seven banks were closed by regulators on Thursday, including six in Illinois, bringing the total for 2009 to 52 as the U.S. banking system remains under pressure from rising unemployment and record foreclosures.
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More than 1,000 banks may fail in the next three to five years as the recession intensifies and loan losses climb, RBC Capital Markets estimated in February.

Bank failures on such a scale will deplete some of the money the FDIC has stored to pay depositors. On Thursday, the FDIC estimated that the seven bank failures will cost its deposit-insurance fund a total of roughly $314.3 million.

You can go to the FDIC website and get a list of all the banks that have failed since October of 2000, sortable by name, state, and closing date.

Unfortunately, you can't download the list as spreadsheet, but, based on a manual count, it looks as though Georgia holds onto first place with 15 bank failures since 2007, followed by a surging Illinois with 13. California holds down the third spot with 10.