Bank depositors in the United States are all financially protected against bank failure because the government insures all individuals' bank deposits  An economist argues that this insurance is partly responsible for the high rate of bank failures, since it removes from depositors any financial incentive to find out whether the bank that holds their money is secure against failure  If depositors were more selective
then banks would need to be secure in order to compete for depositors' money
Surveys show that a significant proportion of depositors are aware that their deposits are insured by the government.