NEW YORK - December 27, 2010 - The $700 billion bank bailout, launched in the final months of the Bush regime, was meant to save U.S. financial institutions from a systemic collapse. But an analysis of banks' earnings statements concludes that nearly 100 bailed-out banks are at risk of collapsing all the same.

Despite receiving a total of $4.2 billion in bailout cash, 98 U.S. banks are at risk of failing, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The banks are suffering from “eroding capital levels, a pile up of bad loans and warnings from regulators,” the Journal reports, and the nature of the problem indicates that these banks were in trouble before the 2008 crisis hit - a sign that the U.S. regulatory structure for banks may have been insufficient for years or decades before the collapse.

So far, seven bailed out banks have already collapsed, costing taxpayers $2.7 billion.