As the number of FDIC problem banks continues to rise so do the predictions for bank failures. According to John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May, the US banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years.
“We’ve already lost 81 this year,” he told CNBC. “The numbers are climbing every day. Many of these institutions nobody’s ever heard of. They’re smaller companies..Government money has propped up the very large institutions as a result of the stimulus package,” he said. “There’s really very little lifeline available for the small institutions that are suffering.”
The FDIC said Thursday that the list of troubled institutions — those deemed to pose at least a “distinct possibility” of failure — increased by more than a third during the 2Q’09, to 416.
