Government regulators shut down another four banks on Friday to bring the total bank failures in 2010 to 20 so far. Banks were shuttered in California, Texas, Illinois and Florida.
Last year 140 banks were closed with an estimated 200 to be closed in 2010, which means there should be a surge of bank closings in the months ahead, as there’s nothing to indicate the estimate is off in any way.
The largest bank to fail this week was La Jolla Bank of La Jolla, California, which will be taken over by OneWest Bank in Pasadena, California, who has taken over two other fail financial institutions over the last year.
La Jolla will cost the deposit insurance fund of the FDIC approximately $882.3 million
Also closed was George Washington Savings Bank of Orland Park, Illinois, which held $397 million in deposits and another $412.8 million in assets.
FirstMerit Bank of Akron, Ohio took over all the deposits and assets listed, with a share-loss agreement between them and the FDIC for losses on $324.2 million.
The deposit insurance fund will be hit for another $141.4 million with this bank failure.
Another Florida bank failed, this time Marco Community Bank, located on Marco Island. They had about $117 million in deposits and $119.6 million in assets.
Taking over Marco will be Mutual of Omaha Bank, a unit of the large insurance company. Mutual of Omaha Bank will assume all the deposits and assets of Marco.
A share-loss agreement for $104.8 million was entered into with the FDIC and Mutual of Omaha Bank, and will cost the deposit insurance fund about $38.1 million.
Finally, the last bank to fail this week was La Coste National Bank of La Coste, Texas, a smaller bank with deposits of $49.3 million and overall assets of $53.9 million.
They will be taken over by Community National Bank of Hondo, Texas, who will assume all the assets and deposits of La Coste.
There is no share-loss in this somewhat puzzling bank closure. It will cost the deposit insurance fund about $3.7 million.
At this time the reason for the closing hasn’t been revealed other than the usual language from the OCC saying there was “substantial dissipation of assets and earnings due to unsafe and unsound practices.”
At the end of 2009 the bank was pretty sound, generating questions as to what happened in a relatively short time with them, or if the data were accurate at that time.
