Two banks only have failed so far this year compared with many failures in 2012 and the years before. The number of bank failures has declined since the peak attained during the global financial crisis. In addition, many of the struggling banks have cleaned up their balanced sheets and raised capital in the years since. Hence their capital ratios are higher now and some are increasing lending sharply according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.

Since hundreds of banks trade on the US markets investors have to be extremely selective with picking individual banks. In order to avoid the pitfalls of stock selections, investors looking to gain exposure to this sector can go with some of the ETFs available for this sector. Investing via ETFs is a cheaper option and removes the risk of investing in banks that turn out to be bad. Some of the bank ETFs are listed below for further research:

1. SPDR S&P Bank ETF (KBE)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.96%
Total Assets: $2.0 B
This ETF includes the super banks such as Citigroup and Bank of America (BAC).

2. PowerShares KBW Regional Banking ETF (KBWR)
Current Dividend Yield: 2.82%
Total Assets: $21.0 M
This ETF focuses on the regional banks but the total assets in the fund is small.

3.SPDR S&P Regional Banking (KRE)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.91%
Total Assets:$1.0 B

4. PowerShares KBW Bank Portfolio ETF (KBWB)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.22%
Total Assets: $79.0 M

5. iShares Dow Jones U.S. Regional Banks Index Fund (IAT)
Current Dividend Yield: 1.82%
Total Assets: $174.0 M

6.First Trust NASDAQ ABA Community Bank Index Fund (QABA)
Current Dividend Yield: 3.77%
Total Assets: $9.0 M

Disclosure: No Positions