This paper explores the effect of natural disasters on the profitability and solvency of U.S. banks. Employing a sample of 187 large-scale natural disasters that occurred in the U.S. between 2000 and 2014 and a sample of 2,891 banks, we find that natural disasters have a pronounced effect on the net-income-to-assets and the net-income-to-equity ratio of banks, as well as impaired loans and the return on average assets. We also observe significant effects on the equity ratio and the tier-1 capital ratio (two solvency measures). Interestingly, the latter are positive for regional banks which appear to voluntarily increase their capital reserves in response to natural disasters that affect part of their operations, but significantly negative for banks that operate locally or nationally.