The survey examines the legislative development of the 1984 statutes and the 1989 amendments, reviews how the courts have interpreted the elements of the statutes, and comments upon the statute's potential scope under the 1989 amendments. Section 1344 renders obsolete the practice of stretching other laws such as the mail fraud statute to prosecute bank fraud and thus advances somewhat criminal justice policy goals of notice and due process. However, its terms are vague, and section 1344 itself potentially reaches an enormous range of conduct. Current banking crimes statutes and the way they have been interpreted suggest the belief that banks, under the supervision of Federal regulators, rather than borrowers, should decide which risks they wish to take. Needed is a statute couched in terms of risk to bank assets. 124 footnotes