The year 2008 saw 28 bank closures in US which was a record high since tracking began few decades back. But that has been dwarfed by the 55 bank closures in the first seven months of 2009, and regulators are bracing for more closures in the balance five months of 2009.
With the unemployment rates at record high, close to 10%, and also with lower property prices, there are more write offs pending to be accounted for by the banks, and hence the regulators are expecting more closures in the coming months.
There are also reports of misuse of the TARP funds by the major banks , including Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase which have reported fabulous results.