With the news in September that Seattle is #1 for delinquent construction loans, it probably comes as not much of a surprise that Washington State also happens to rank #1 in the nation for troubled banks, according to Calculated Risk’s unofficial problem bank list.
State Percent Washington 26.3% Utah 25.0% Arizona 21.3% Nevada 20.0% Oregon 19.5% Georgia 19.2% California 17.8% Florida 16.3% Michigan 13.2% Maryland 10.8% Colorado 10.6% This week we looked over the numbers to determine which states have the most stress in their banking sector. For the ranking, we added together the number of institutions that are on the Unofficial Problem Bank List and failures since 2008 and divided by the number of institutions headquartered in the state and failures since 2008. Interestingly, Georgia is not the top ranked state. Here is the top 10 list; actually top 11 as Maryland and Colorado are in a virtual tie. Please note that we only ranked states with at least 15 institutions headquartered within their borders, as we did not want the ranking influenced by a small banking market.
Washington State leads the way with more than 26 percent of its banking industry either under formal enforcement action or having failed. No wonder the esteemed governor wrote a letter to the state’s congressional delegation complaining about bank regulators (see Wall Street Journal article).
Here’s a map of Washington’s 23 troubled banks, according to Calculated Risk’s unofficial list, as well as Washington’s three recently-failed banks (via the FDIC), and WaMu, which the FDIC lists as a Nevada bank.
View Washington’s Troubled Banks in a larger map
Hat tip: Puget Sound Business Journal