WASHINGTON – Regulators closed banks in Florida, Georgia and New Mexico, awarding a third financial institution to Bond Street Holdings LLC, a Florida investment firm that first bought banks in January.
Friday’s three failures cost the agency’s deposit-insurance fund $284.6 million.
Bond Street bought Peninsula Bank, a $440 million Englewood, Fla., institution, which is the third acquisition this year for the Naples, Florida-based investment firm that was the first to use a regulatory shelf charter, giving it advance approval to purchase failed lenders. Bond Street bought two banks in January.
Friday’s other failures were: First National Bank, a $250 million Savannah, Ga., institution, and High Desert Bank, an $80 million Albuquerque, N.M., institution.
The FDIC has now closed 86 banks this year and is on pace to exceed last year’s total of 140, which was the most bank closings since 1992. The failures will drain $60 billion over the next three-and-a-half years from the FDIC’s fund, the agency said June 22. The fund dipped into deficit in the third quarter.
