KBRA Financial Intelligence

First Bank Failure of 2025

Last Friday, the FDIC took Chicago, Illinois-based Pulaski Savings Bank into receivership, marking the first bank failure of 2025. The bank’s $49.5 million in assets were then assumed by Millenium Bank (KFI Score: C+), also based in Illinois. As of 3Q 2024, Pulaski Savings Bank’s KFI score was a B-, suggesting the institution was in sound financial condition, but the FDIC noted that they suspect fraud was involved in this failure. From 2010 through 2024, 96% of banks that failed had a KFI Score of D or lower in the quarter prior to the FDIC date of failure.

Nearly 90% of Pulaski’s lending was concentrated in 1-4 family residential loans, with the remainder largely being composed of commercial real estate. Individual banks and credit unions’ loan compositions can be viewed via KFI’s web app, as well as our Excel add-in’s Loan Category and Delinquency Report template.

The first bank failure of the new year has come much earlier than 2024’s, which only saw two bank failures throughout the whole year. The combined assets of those two institutions, Republic First Bank (failed April 26, 2024) and The First National Bank of Lindsay (failed October 18, 2024), were equivalent to $6.1 billion. KFI recently highlighted five charts that defined banking in 2024, noting that total assets of failed U.S. banks fell dramatically from a historic $548.7 billion in 2023. To access KBRA Financial Intelligence’s KFI scores and our full library of data, request a demo with KFI.