Four new closings put US bank failure list at 119

[Naveed Yaseen]

WASHINGTON (November 08 2009): Bank regulators closed banks in Georgia, Michigan, Missouri and Minnesota on Friday, pushing the toll of US bank failures this year to 119 as deteriorating loans continue to take their toll on financial institutions. By comparison, 25 US banks were seized by officials in 2008, up from only 3 in 2007.

Chairman Sheila Bair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has said bank failures will remain elevated, even as the economy begins to recover, because the bank industry is continuing to recognise loan losses and clean up balance sheets. Bair says the industry's woes are migrating from residential loans and complex securities to more conventional types of retail and commercial loans that have been hit hard by the recession.

CLOSED ON FRIDAY WERE:

-- United Security Bank, of Sparta, Georgia, with assets of $157 million. Ameris Bank, of Moultrie, Georgia, agreed to assume all the deposits. FDIC and Ameris Bank entered a share-loss transaction on approximately $123 million of United Security Bank's assets.

-- Home Federal Savings Bank, of Detroit, with $14.9 million in assets and $12.8 million in deposits. Liberty Bank and Trust Co, of New Orleans, agreed to assume all the deposits and essentially all of the assets. The failure was estimated to cost the FDIC's insurance fund $5.4 million.

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