Monday, November 24, 2008

ET: 22 Banks Collapsed In The US This Year

As many as 22 American banks have collapsed this year so far, even as the banking giant Citigroup, led by Indian-American, Vikram Pandit, struggled this week to save itself from becoming number 23 in this fast growing long list.

On Friday, three US banks collapsed with two of them being in California and the third one in Georgia.

With little signs of improvement, The Wall Street Journal said regulators expect more failures during the remaining part of this year and next year, as "rotting real estates and other loans continue to weigh down bank balance sheets."

Collapse of such a large number of American banks, despite a $700 billion bailout package reflects the deep turmoil of the US economy. From 2003 to 2007 only 10 US banks were reported to have collapsed. In 2008, the figure has already touched 22 and still more than a month to go.

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