The number of banking institutions in the U.S. has dwindled to its lowest level since at least the Great Depression, as a sluggish economy, low interest rates and heightened regulation take their toll on the sector, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The number of federally insured institutions nationwide shrank to 6,891 in the third quarter after this summer falling below 7,000 for the first time since federal regulators began keeping track in 1934, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The decline in bank numbers, from a peak of more than 18,000, has come almost entirely in the form of exits by banks with less than $100 million in assets, with the bulk occurring between 1984 and 2011. More than 10,000 banks left the industry during that period as a result of mergers, consolidations or failures, FDIC data show.
