Close to 190 US banks could collapse: USA Today

A study on the fragility of the U.S. banking system found that 186 more banks are at risk of failure even if only half of their uninsured depositors decide to withdraw their funds, reported USA Today on Thursday.

"With the failure of three regional banks since March, and another one teetering on the brink, will America soon see a cascade of bank failures?" asked the report.

Bloomberg has reported that San Francisco-based PacWest Bancorp is mulling a sale, with its values down by large margins. Last week, First Republic Bank became the third bank to collapse, the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history after Washington Mutual, which collapsed in 2008 amid the financial crisis. Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank demised in March.

"Regional banks are failing because the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes to tamp down inflation have eroded the value of bank assets such as government bonds and mortgage-backed securities," noted the report.