As small banks fail and collapse across the nation, is now the time to buy into the big banks that seem almost invincible to bankruptcy even in this recession?  Last Thursday federal regulators shut down seven more banks across the country pushing the total for 2009 to 52 bank failures.  In 2008 only 25 banks failed for the entire year but in the first half of this year we have more than doubled that number.  The banks that are falling seem to be the small and local banks that do not have a lot of capitol coming in and out and so they are unable to keep up with their debt.  With small banks more likely to fail and with these local businesses being eliminated big banks may be the way to go.  The customers and mortgages of these smaller banks that are failing will be going over to the big banks.  The failure of these banks also opens up new room for the big banks to start growing a new customer base as competition is eliminated.  As the failure of these small banks opens opportunity for new banks, we do see buying into stocks such as Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) to have a lot of upside potential, but in the long term.  So if you buy into these stocks, do not expect a quick jump and an easy gain but try a buy and hold approach.