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For a second time in three weeks, regulators have shuttered a bank that others were unwilling to acquire.
March 9
State regulators closed two banks on Friday, bringing the year's tally to 15. The two failures, in Georgia and Illinois, are expected to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $ 95.6 million.
The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed the $95.7 million-asset Covenant Bank & Trust in Rock Spring. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. entered into an agreement with Stearns Bank in St. Cloud, Minn., on Covenant's assets, with $71.6 million of those assets covered by a loss-share arrangement. Stearns also agreed to assume the failed bank's $71.6 million in deposits.
The failure is expected to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $31.5 million.
Stearns has been one of the busiest failed-bank acquirers. Including Covenant, Stearns has acquired seven banks in Arizona, Florida, Georgia and Minnesota since 2008. It was, however, on a breather. Its last failed bank deal was in November 2010 for Copper State Bank in Scottsdale, Ariz.
An hour later, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation closed the $268.7 million-asset Premier Bank in Wilmette. The FDIC sold the bank's assets to International Bank of Chicago without a loss-sharing arrangement. International Bank also agreed to assume $199 million of Premier's deposits.
That failure is expected to cost $64.1 million.
It is International Bank's second failed bank deal; it bought All American Bank in Des Plaines, Ill., in October.
