Three Banks Closed in Florida, Georgia and N.M.
June 29, 2010
The number of U.S. bank failures is now at 86 for the year as regulators shut down three more banks in Florida, Georgia and New Mexico.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Peninsula Bank, based in Englewood, Fla., with $644.3 million in assets and $580.1 million in deposits; First National Bank in Savannah, Ga., with $252.5 million in assets and $231.9 million in deposits, and High Desert State Bank, based in Albuquerque, N.M., with $80.3 million in assets and $81 million in deposits.
Miami-based Premier American Bank agreed to assume the assets and deposits of Peninsula Bank. In addition, the FDIC and Premier American Bank agreed to share losses on $437.6 million of Peninsula Bank's assets. Peninsula Bank was the 14th institution in Florida to fail this year, matching last year’s total for the state.
The Savannah Bank is assuming all the deposits and some of the assets of First National Bank; the FDIC will retain most of the assets for eventual sale. First National Bank was the ninth to succumb this year in Georgia — where 25 banks failed in 2009, more than in any other state.
First American Bank assumed all of the deposits of High Desert State Bank, which was the second bank to fail in New Mexico this year.
By this time last year, regulators had closed 45 banks. The pace has accelerated as banks' losses mount on loans made for commercial property and development.
The number of bank failures is expected to peak this year and be slightly higher than the 140 that fell in 2009. That was the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of the savings and loan crisis. The 2009 failures cost the insurance fund more than $30 billion. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force, and only three succumbed in 2007.
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