Banking By the Numbers

There are about 7,350 commercial bank and savings institutions in the United States as well as about 7,500 credit unions. Most have retail stores. There are about 99,600 bank offices. The industry continues to be impacted by mergers and acquisitions. The four largest by far are JPMorgan Chase Bank, Bank of America, Citibank and Wells Fargo Bank.

With all those automated teller machines out there, you would think there are more ATMs as compared to tellers. But you would be wrong. There are about 556,000 tellers while there are 402,000 ATMs. But both have been reduced in numbers since 2008.

When it comes to the Willie Sutton effect, there is not that much lost dollars from bank robberies relative to electronic and identity thefts. According to the FBI, in the third quarter 2011, the last data recorded, there were about 1,080 bank robberies with a loss of about $9.3 million dollars. About $2 million was recovered.