Bank & Credit Union Health Grades Updated from Latest Data (2023 Q1)
The FDIC and NCUA have released their reports of the first quarter health of the institutions they insure. They also released the 2023 First Quarter Call Reports of all institutions they insure. We use these reports to derive our financial health grades for each institution.
The FDIC release occurred on May 31st, and the NCUA release occurred on June 8th. As of last week, we have finished importing this data, and all of the health grades for banks and credit unions have been updated to reflect the March 31, 2023 reports.
Last year the FDIC changed the format of their call report data. This prevented us from being able to import the data and update the health grades. Early this year, my technical team was able to update our import software, and I’m happy to report that the new software is now working well.
Our Bank Health Ratings page is undergoing an update and is currently unavailable. If you try to access it now, you’ll be redirected to the “Credit Union and Bank Rates” page. This Bank Health Ratings was the page where you could view a table of banks and credit unions ranked by Texas ratio, a standard financial health metric. You could also use this page to find the health information on any specific bank or credit union. This can also be done by just searching for your institution on any DA page.
To find the financial health information for your bank or credit union, just enter the name of your institution in the search box at the top right on any DA webpage. The search result should take you to our profile page for that institution. Near the top of this page there should be a health rating grade and a link to “view health report”. Click on this link, and it’ll take you to the section of the profile page with the financial details of the institution.
Bank Failures
In the first quarter of this year, two banks failed, and one bank self-liquidated. Silicon Valley Bank failed on March 10th, and Signature Bank failed on March 12th. On March 8th, Silvergate Bank announced voluntary self-liquidation. Silvergate was one of the main banks serving the crypto industry, and it was severely impacted by the collapse of FTX. One interesting note regarding the self-liquidation is that it appears CDs will be paid through until maturity. In the consent order from regulators, it stipulated that:
the Bank shall submit an acceptable written plan to the Supervisors that details the current composition of the Bank’s brokered deposits by maturity and explain the means by which such deposits will be paid at maturity.
So far in the second quarter, only one bank has failed. On May 1st, regulators closed First Republic Bank.
All of the three failed banks were large. At the time of the closure, First Republic Bank had $229.1 billion in assets, Silicon Valley Bank had $209.0 billion in assets, and Signature Bank had $110.4 billion in assets.
In the quarterly banking profiles, the FDIC provides an update of the changes of its “Problem Bank List.” According to the FDIC, “banks on this list have a CAMELS composite rating of “4” or “5” due to financial, operational, or managerial weaknesses, or a combination of such issues.” None of the three banks that failed were on this list. On February 28th, the FDIC’s Fourth Quarter Banking Profile provided the following status of the Problem Bank List:
The number of banks on the list decreased by three from the previous quarter to 39 banks and total assets held by problem banks declined $116.3 billion to $47.5 billion in the fourth quarter.
On May 31st, the FDIC’s First Quarter Banking Profile provided the following status of the Problem Bank List:
The number of banks on the list increased by four from the previous quarter—reflecting movement from banks coming on and off the list—to 43 banks, and total assets held by problem banks were $58.0 billion, up $10.5 billion.
Each of the three failed banks had total assets that were larger than the total assets of all of the problem banks at the start of the quarter when they failed. This is a good reminder that you can never know for sure which bank is at risk of failure, and thus, it’s wise to make sure all of your deposits are under the coverage limits.
Credit Union Failures
In the first quarter, one credit union was liquidated, and one credit union was placed into conservatorship. So far in the second quarter, one credit union has failed. All three credit unions were tiny at the time of these actions. Total assets of the three credit unions were less than $37 million.
On January 20, Texas-based Valwood Park Federal Credit Union was placed into conservatorship by the NCUA. Under conservatorship, the NCUA continues normal member services and works to resolve issues affecting the credit union’s operations. Members continue to have full access to their deposits, even deposits over the insured limits. At the end of conservatorship, there will be one of three outcomes: the credit union is liquidated, the credit union is merged into another credit union, or the credit union is restored back to safe and sound operation. If liquidation occurs, members will be at risk of losing their uninsured deposits. Thus, if your credit union is ever placed into conservatorship, you should immediately ensure all of your deposits at the credit union are under the coverage limits.
On March 8, Inter-American Federal Credit Union was liquidated by the NCUA. According to the NCUA’s press release, “NCUA’s Asset Management and Assistance Center will issue correspondence to individuals holding verified credit union share accounts within one week.” Uninsured deposits may have been lost in this case. However, this credit union was especially small and probably didn’t have any large deposits. Its total assets at the time of liquidation were only $727k.
On April 3, Richmond City Employees Federal Credit Union was merged into another credit union (Kemba Credit Union) with NCUA assistance. In December 2022, the NCUA had placed Richmond City Employees FCU in conservatorship. According to the NCUA press release, “The new Kemba Credit Union members should experience no interruption in services.”
Rankings of the Largest Banks and Credit Unions
In addition to the updated health grades, the size information for all banks and credit unions have been updated. You can view how the banks and credit unions have changed in size in our table of the Largest Banks and Credit Unions by Assets. The size data of this table is now based on March 31, 2023 data. By default, the institutions are ranked by assets. Click on the column title and you can sort by total branches, number of states with branches, number of employees and number of customer accounts.
Chase Bank continues to be the largest bank based on assets. As of March 31, 2023, total assets were $3.268 trillion, which is down 6.00% from last year. Bank of America remains in the #2 spot with $2.518 trillion in assets. In the last year or two, Citi overtook Wells Fargo for the #3 spot. Citi now has total assets of $1.722 trillion, while Wells Fargo Bank has total deposits of $1.688 trillion.
Navy Federal continues to be the largest credit union. Total assets as of March 31st were $166.016 billion, up 3.36% from a year ago. Navy Federal continues to be way ahead of other credit unions in size. The second largest is State Employees' Credit Union in North Carolina with total assets of $50.775 billion. PenFed is back at the #3 spot with $35.319 billion in assets, and BECU has fallen back to the #4 spot with $28.927 billion in deposits. California-based SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union may soon take over the #4 spot. With total assets of $28.569 billion, it's just below the total assets of BECU.
External references:
- FDIC list of failed banks
- NCUA database of failed and conserved credit unions
- Latest FDIC info on deposit insurance
- Latest NCUA info on share/deposit insurance