the American banking system is very different to that of Europe and especially the UK.
They have a lot of small local banks, even for a single town. Management and oversight of these is very variable, and they have a history of succumbing to fraud and undue influence. They are also prone to having all their eggs in one basket.
However, the US does have a very good process for taking over failing banks, often it is done over a weekend and they reopen for business on the Monday morning "under new management" so have less of a problem with runs on banks and loss on confidence.
You may remember that when Northern Crock was collapsing, no-one knew (if it went bust) how long it would take for depositors to get their money back under the protection scheme. This increased the panic for retail customers to withdraw their savings. Even if the government guarantees your savings, if you don't know how long it will take, that is no good. I believe the Isle of Man scheme is very bad in this respect.
