One of the reasons the crisis in Cyprus has had limited market effects is that something like that would be unlikely to be repeated in the U.S.
That's not to say it could never happen. The truth is, there have been bank runs pretty much as long as there have been banks, so a liquidity crisis certainly could hit American financial institutions and cause substantial damage. But as a matter of scale, the problems in Cyprus are far worse than anything likely to wash up on U.S. shores.
"All things considered, it is extremely unlikely that depositors at U.S. banks would ever suffer losses in the event of a bank failure," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. "For a start, U.S. banks are better capitalized and the banking sector is a much smaller part of the overall economy."
(Read More: Cyprus Banks Reopen, Under Tight Controls)
In a report for clients, Ashworth compared the Cyprus situation to the volatile banking sector in the U.S. and concluded that there's little to fear of a repeat performance.
For one, American bank deposits comprise a relatively small 93 percent of gross domestic product, compared to 716 percent for Cyprus.
On top of that, U.S. banks have enough reserves to pay their debts, and the largest institutions recently held up well under Federal Reserve stress tests.