US Banks are seeing a larger number of new entrants into the industry. Chime, a mobile-only bank, has opened two million online checking accounts and is adding more customers each month than Wells Fargo or Citibank. Firms from outside traditional consumer banking including Square, Goldman Sachs (Marcus), and Robinhood are entering the industry as well. The consulting firm CG42 said in a recent report on the vulnerability of retail banking that it expects the ten largest banks to lose $344 billion in deposits over the next year.
Applications for and approvals of FDIC deposit insurance are at a recent high, with fifteen approvals in 2018 and eight so far this year, shown in the chart below.
Despite banking’s 20 year decline in the number of banks, the

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