The FDIC’s BankFind tool lets you confirm in under a minute whether a bank is federally insured. Open the BankFind Suite on the FDIC’s website, search by the bank’s legal name, its FDIC certificate number, or its website address, and check the institution profile that comes back. If the status reads “Active,” the bank is currently FDIC-insured and your deposits are protected up to $250,000 per depositor, per bank, for each ownership category.1FDIC.gov. What We Do
What You Need Before You Search
Have at least one of three things ready: the bank’s legal name, its FDIC certificate number, or the bank’s website address.2Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). BankFind Suite – Find Insured Banks
The FDIC certificate number is a unique identifier assigned to each insured institution, and it is the fastest way to pull up the exact bank you want. You can usually find it on your bank’s website, often on a disclosure or “about” page near the FDIC logo. If you don’t have the certificate number, the legal name works. Just be aware that many banks operate under a marketing name that differs from their chartered legal name, so a name search may return something unfamiliar.
Running the Search
On the BankFind page, choose your search type from the dropdown. There are three ways to look up an institution.
By Bank Name
Select Bank Name, type the name, and optionally narrow the results by state or city. The results list shows matching institutions with summary information. Click any entry to open its full profile.3FDIC.gov. Enhanced FDIC Tool Helps Consumers Identify Unfamiliar Banks and Websites
By FDIC Certificate Number
Select FDIC Cert #, enter the number, and search. This pulls the exact institution with no ambiguity, which is why it is the cleanest option if you have the number.
By Website URL
This is the search option most people overlook, and it is arguably the most useful one for verifying online-only banks. Select “Web Address/URL” from the search type dropdown, enter the bank’s basic domain name without “www” or “.com,” and run the search. BankFind returns the name of the FDIC-insured bank that owns that website, if one exists.3FDIC.gov. Enhanced FDIC Tool Helps Consumers Identify Unfamiliar Banks and Websites
If the website does not appear in the results, treat that as a red flag. It could mean the site is not connected to any insured institution, or it could be a newly insured bank that has not yet been added to the database. Either way, don’t deposit money until you have confirmed the connection. You can call the FDIC directly at 1-877-275-3342 and select option 1 to speak with a deposit insurance specialist.4FDIC.gov. Contact the FDIC
Reading the Results
The institution’s profile page gives you the definitive answer. The field to check first is Status. “Active” means the bank is currently operating and FDIC-insured. “Inactive” means the bank has closed, merged, or otherwise stopped operating as a separate insured institution. If your bank shows as inactive because it was acquired, the profile’s history section will point to the successor institution, and in most acquisitions that successor takes on the acquired bank’s insured deposits.5FDIC. Failed Banks Help Verify the successor’s status in BankFind too.
Trade Names Versus Legal Names
The profile displays the official legal name of the insured entity. If you searched a marketing name and the profile lists a different chartered bank, that chartered bank is the one carrying the insurance. Searching “Bank B” might reveal that it is now a trade name of “Bank A” and is no longer separately insured.3FDIC.gov. Enhanced FDIC Tool Helps Consumers Identify Unfamiliar Banks and Websites This matters for your coverage math: all deposits held through different trade names of the same chartered bank count toward a single set of insurance limits.
Bank Class Codes
Each profile includes a bank class code identifying the institution type. Common insured codes include:6FDIC. BankFind Suite – Help Library
- N: National commercial bank, Federal Reserve member
- SM: State commercial bank, Federal Reserve member
- NM: State commercial bank or mutual commercial bank
- SB: Savings bank
- SL: Savings and loan association
Codes like NC (non-insured institution) or NS (non-insured savings association) mean the institution does not carry FDIC coverage. If you see those codes, deposits held there are not federally insured.
When BankFind Returns Nothing
If your search comes back empty, start by double-checking the spelling and try the URL search, which can catch institutions with unfamiliar legal names. Beyond that, a missing result usually points to one of three situations.
It might be a credit union. Credit unions are not FDIC-insured; they carry separate federal insurance through the National Credit Union Administration’s Share Insurance Fund, which also covers deposits up to $250,000 per account holder. Verify a credit union using the NCUA’s “Research a Credit Union” tool on the NCUA website.7National Credit Union Administration. New Online Search Tool Makes Finding Credit Union Information Easier
It might be a fintech app rather than a bank. Many popular financial apps are not banks; they partner with FDIC-insured banks behind the scenes, and the apps themselves are never FDIC-insured.8FDIC.gov. Banking With Third-Party Apps Your deposits are only protected if funds actually reach the partner bank’s books. Look for disclosure language naming the specific FDIC-insured bank that holds your deposits, then run that bank through BankFind. If the app can’t clearly tell you which insured institution holds your money, treat that as a warning sign.
If it is neither in BankFind nor in the NCUA’s database, don’t deposit funds until you have confirmed the institution’s legitimacy. Contact the FDIC’s Information and Support Center at 1-877-275-3342, available weekdays 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET and Saturdays 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET.4FDIC.gov. Contact the FDIC
Confirming How Much of Your Money Is Actually Covered
BankFind tells you whether a bank is insured. It doesn’t tell you whether all your money at that bank is insured. For that, use the FDIC’s Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE), which lets you enter your specific accounts and calculates exactly what is covered and what, if anything, exceeds the limit.9FDIC. Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) – Home
EDIE handles all the main personal ownership types (single, joint, payable-on-death, revocable trust, irrevocable trust, and IRA) as well as business and government accounts.10FDIC. Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE) – Calculator The output is a printable report you can keep with your records.
The distinction matters because coverage is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category.11FDIC.gov. Understanding Deposit Insurance Deposits in different categories at the same bank each get their own $250,000 limit; deposits in the same category are combined. A checking account, a joint savings account, and an IRA CD at the same bank sit in three separate categories. Two IRAs at the same bank sit in one. FDIC insurance also does not extend to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, annuities, crypto assets, life insurance policies, or the contents of safe deposit boxes, even when you bought them at a bank branch.1FDIC.gov. What We Do
Verifying the bank in BankFind and then running the numbers in EDIE gets you the full answer: yes the institution is insured, and yes your specific balance is covered.