Here was a nice perspective (
Link):
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he largest bank failure in U.S. history was Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company. When it failed in May 1984, it had $41 billion in assets and $30 billion in total deposits.
According to the FDIC press release, when IndyMac failed in July it had $32 billion in assets and $19 billion in deposits, making it the second-largest failure in history.
Washington Mutual has $310 billion in assets and $182 billion in deposits. (Their market cap is now below $4 billion.) So think of WaMu as 10 IndyMacs.
The FDIC now estimates the IndyMac failure will cost their insurance fund $9 billion. The total size of the fund is now $45 billion, its lowest since 1995. When the fund runs out…