WASHINGTON – Regulators on Friday shut down banks in Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, bringing to nine the number of bank failures so far in 2010, following 140 closures last year.
Friday’s failures were: $1.2 billion Charter Bank, in Santa Fe, N.M., $1.1 billion Columbia River Bank, in The Dalles, Ore.; $490 million Evergreen Bank, in Seattle; $350 million Premier American Bank, in Miami; and, $20 million Bank of Leeton, in Leeton, Mo.
The failures marked the expansion of private equity sales for failed institutions, with investment funds agreeing to acquire the healthy assets of both Charter Bank and Premier Bank. The federal regulators used a novel procedure for Premier American Bank, employing the first so-called "shelf charter" to give preliminary approval to a group of investors to obtain a national bank charter before acquiring a specific troubled institution. The shelf charter was inactive until the acquisition was made.
Bond Street Holdings, which acquired the remnants of Premier Bank, is headed by former North Fork Bancorp Chief Financial Officer Dan Healy and has raised $440 million from about 65 mutual funds, hedge funds, private equity firms and individuals to buy failed banks.
In the other deal, Beal Financial Corp., a Dallas investment company, agreed to acquire the remnants of Charter Bank.
