Litigation

There were 140 bank failures last year, the highest annual number of failures since 1992, when the country was at the height of the savings and loan crisis. The 2009 failures cost the insurance fund more than $30 billion. As a comparison there were 25 bank failures in 2008 and only  three in 2007.

Depositors' money is insured up to $250,000 per account through 2014. The FDIC's expectations are a $100B outflow over the next 4 years. Banks are assessed premiums each year and in 2009 were mandated by the FDIC to prepay premiums for 2010-2012 to help replenish the withered coffers of the bank insurance fund.

That being said it is worth pointing out that during this financial crisis ALL of the structured annuity issuers writing structured settlements have made their payments.