Regulators Shut 4 Banks, Toll Reaches 13; Deposit Fund Shrinks By Margaret Chadbourn
Feb. 15 (
Bloomberg) -- Banks in four U.S. states with more than $1 billion in assets were closed in a single day, boosting the toll of seized lenders to 13 this year and further draining a deposit insurance fund amid record home foreclosures.
Florida, Nebraska, Illinois and Oregon regulators took over the banks Feb. 13 and, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., sold $807.5 million in deposits and arranged to open the branches under new names on Feb. 17. The FDIC said the shutdowns, the most on one day since 1992, will cost the agency $341.6 million.
Florida’s Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast in Cape Coral, Nebraska’s Sherman County Bank in Loup City, Illinois’ Corn Belt Bank and Trust Co. of Pittsfield and Oregon’s Pinnacle Bank of Beaverton were shut. TIB Bank of Naples bought Riverside’s $424 million of deposits, the FDIC said. Heritage Bank of Wood River got Sherman County’s $85.1 million of deposits, Carlinville National Bank gained Corn Belt’s $234.4 million deposits and Washington Trust Bank of Spokane got Pinnacle’s $64 million.
Regulators have now seized 13 banks, and seven so far in February are the most for a month since 1993. State and federal agencies shuttered 25 banks last year, matching the total for 2001-2007, as home foreclosures soared and bank profits tumbled. The FDIC has doubled premiums it charges banks to replenish its reserves, which had $34.6 billion as of the third quarter.
The Obama administration is seeking to jolt the economy with a bank rescue using $350 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a $787 billion stimulus package and a plan to stem foreclosures. The housing plan involves the U.S. subsidizing as much as $50 billion for interest-rate cuts to help borrowers avoid losing their homes, said a person briefed on the proposal. .......(more)
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