I know people who had their checking and savings at Washington Mutual when it failed in 2008.
The FDIC arranged for Chase to take it over. Nobody lost any money, and nobody I know had any problems with checks clearing or withdrawing cash at ATMs or paying their rent or mortgages.
I think the demise of Washington Mutual is still considered the biggest bank failure in US history, it happened while quite a lot of other bad things were happening, yet depositors ended up being totally fine. The systems in place for this are actually really good, and the FDIC is fast and competent.
The FDIC arranged for Chase to take it over. Nobody lost any money, and nobody I know had any problems with checks clearing or withdrawing cash at ATMs or paying their rent or mortgages.
I think the demise of Washington Mutual is still considered the biggest bank failure in US history, it happened while quite a lot of other bad things were happening, yet depositors ended up being totally fine. The systems in place for this are actually really good, and the FDIC is fast and competent.