Small bank failure drip persists as FDIC fast tracks sales

Two U.S. banks have failed so far in 2026, continuing the recent pattern of smaller lenders collapsing abruptly due to firm-specific issues. January’s failure of Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust and the early May failure of Community Bank & Trust – West Georgia both fit that mold.

Processing Content

At the time of its failure, Community Bank held $288 million in assets and $268 million in deposits. Roughly $27 million of those deposits exceeded the FDIC’s $250,000 limit for insurance coverage meaning funds are not guaranteed, though the agency said it would provide advance dividends to affected depositors.

Regulators had already flagged issues at the Georgia lender earlier in the year. An April 14 cease-and-desist order from the Federal Reserve said the firm employed a risky growth strategy at the bank’s parent company, including making and purchasing Small Business Administration and Agriculture Department loans through nonbank third parties. A January review by the Atlanta Fed also pointed to deficiencies in board oversight, capital and compliance.

Both Metropolitan Capital Bank, with $261 million in assets, and Community Bank were larger than either of the 2025 failures. 

Another Chicago-based firm, Pulaski Savings Bank, failed in January 2025 with $49.5 million in assets; Santa Anna National Bank of Texas, with $63.8 million of assets, failed in June 2025 after reportedly taking losses related to fraud.

Still, all of those firms were relatively small, and certainly much smaller than the 2023 failures of Silicon Valley Bank – $209 billion in assets – and First Republic Bank – $233 billion in assets. Since then, only one bank that failed had more than $1 billion in assets. Republic First Bank, with $6 billion in assets, failed in April 2024.

The FDIC’s move this month to sell the Georgia bank the same day of the failure’s announcement — as it did with Metropolitan — fits into Chair Travis Hill’s focus on swift transactions of failed banks, something he’s cited as a priority in the past. Hill has argued the longer the agency takes to sell bank assets, the harder it is to find willing buyers. 

Hill has spoken about the reputational harm caused as the public witnessed the agency’s prolonged search for a buyer for Silicon Valley Bank’s assets following its March 2023 failure. To speed up the process, he said at the time, a very high level government official should negotiate directly with bank CEOs.

Still, the last decade has been very steady for banks. There have not been more than five bank failures in any year since 2017, according to the FDIC, and some years – such as 2021 and 2022 – have not seen any failures at all. Moreover, apart from Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank, none of the failed banks have had substantial assets.