Banking in the United States

When one tries to open an account in a bank, in the United States, the first question might be: which is a safer one? There might be many criteria to answer that, but ranking can be a quick reference.
The New York Job Source has The Largest Banks in the U.S., also Largest Bank Holding Companies in the U.S.
If the bank of interest is not even among the top 50, or if one wants to look for a bank in certain states, Yennik Inc. gives an comprehensive list of "US Banks on the Internet". usbankslist.com also has a similar list,  all sorted by states.

As to how many banks there are in the United States, answers.com has the answer as below. Give or take the changes, over 9000 in tatal! One must have never realized there are so many banks out there, healthy or not.

Chart 4. The title is "Number of U.S. Banks by Size Category"

A bar chart. 4,893 banks or savings institutions have more than $100 million in assets; 3,517 have $100 to $500 million; 859 have $500 million to $5 billion; 150 have $5 to $50 billion; and 22 have more than $50 billion.

4883
3517
859
150
50
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9459 banks with $100 million or more.

Although a sane mind won't even bother to think about, there should more payday loan, pawnbrokers or credit union loans type of financing business. The payday loan is legal and regulated only in 37 states though.