According to its own estimates, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will see losses exceeding $36 billion owing to the 140 banks that failed in 2009.

By comparison, those losses will eclipse the total dollar amount of the losses the FDIC incurred during the six years spanning 1987 through 1992, when 1,049 banks failed at a total cost to the FDIC of $29.6 billion.

These latest findings are contained in a report produced by Meridian Group of Seattle. The Meridian report compares bank failure statistics from this latest banking crisis to bank failure statistics from the savings and loan crisis of 20 years ago and concludes that this latest banking crisis is the worst crisis the FDIC has ever faced and that 2009 was the costliest year ever for bank failures.

In the previous savings and loan crisis, the average failed banking institution had total assets of $205 million. In 2009, the average banking institution that failed had total assets of $1.2 billion. Perhaps more importantly, the average banking institution that failed during the savings and loan crisis cost the FDIC $28 million. In 2009, the average failed banking institution will cost the FDIC an estimated $261 million.