Despite one of the worst economic climates in recent history, the number of bank crimes fell sharply last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Monday.

There were a total of 6,065 violations of the Federal Bank Robbery and Incidental Crimes Statute, the FBI said. That's down 11 percent from 2008, when 6,857 violations were reported.

The FBI reported significant declines in all four categories of bank crimes: robberies fell 13 percent; burglaries were down 17 percent; larcenies declined 32 percent and extortions dropped 62 percent.

A spokeswoman at FBI headquarters in Washington said the agency does not normally comment on what causes bank crime statistics to go up or down because there are so many variables in the nationwide numbers.

"It's difficult to say why the numbers trend one way or the other," said Special Agent Richard Kolko, an FBI spokesman in New York. "But it's definitely a good thing when they go down."

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