Georgia

The Federal Reserve Board issued three enforcement actions against community banks and their holding companies on Thursday.

Ameris Bank is one of the few homegrown banks in Georgia to have bid successfully on multiple failed banks. That's especially notable given that Ameris, which on Friday made its fourth failed-bank purchase in the past year, has had eight consecutive quarters of net losses largely owing to credit deterioration in real estate-related loans.

Seven banks failed Friday, bringing the total number of failures this year to within one of the number of failures in all of 2009. So far 139 banks have failed in 2010. Friday's failures are expected to cost the deposit insurance fund a collective $478 million.

Fidelity Southern Corp. in Atlanta has reported third-quarter earnings of $2.1 million, a 425% improvement from a year earlier, and says that most of its problems are behind it.

Heritage Financial Group in Albany, Ga., announced Friday that it has received conditional approval from the Office of Thrift Supervision to complete its second-step conversion and become a full stock company.

Charter Financial Corp. in West Point, Ga., has completed the sale of $34.2 million of common stock. The $1.1 billion-asset Charter sold 4.4 million shares of common stock for $7.78 a share, for net proceeds of $30.6 million. The news was announced Wednesday.

Charter Financial expects to raise up to $34.2 million of fresh capital through a public offering — barely half what it had hoped to raise initially.

Regulators tend to prefer that existing banks, not groups of private investors, acquire failed banks, yet Community and Southern, along with State Bank and Trust Co. in Macon, Ga., has been able to put private-equity money to use in FDIC-assisted deals.

Bank turnaround artist Patrick Frawley sealed deals to buy three failed institutions in Georgia on Friday, as regulators shuttered a total of six banks.

Atlantic Coast Federal Corp. in Waycross, Ga., has appointed veteran banker Jay S. Sidhu as executive chairman of its Atlantic Coast Bank unit, a move that could help the company complete its second-step conversion.

Atlantic Coast Federal Corp. in Waycross, Ga., has appointed veteran banker Jay S. Sidhu as executive chairman of its thrift, mirroring a position he has held at the company since May.

The Federal Reserve said Thursday that it has restricted dividend payments by three banks, one of which got $2.4 million through the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Heritage Financial Group in Albany, Ga., said Monday that it will revise its accounting treatment of problem loans acquired in a failed-bank deal last year.

PAB Bankshares Inc. in Valdosta, Ga., said late Wednesday that it had withdrawn plans to raise $80 million in a common stock offering "due to changing market conditions."

The $1.2 billion-asset company on Monday posted a $21 million loss, compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the first quarter, and net income of $342,000 a year earlier.

FGBC Bancshares Inc. in Franklin, Ga., has entered into a consent order with state regulators requiring it to boost capital ratios.

Several banks are actively looking to expand in the Georgia capital, viewing it as a market that will inevitably rebound from its malaise of the past three years.

The $5.1 billion-asset company announced Monday that it has received regulatory approval to consolidate two of its banks — Bank of Valdosta and Peoples State Bank — in its Sunrise Bank of Atlanta. Collectively, the three banks have $136 million of assets.

Five bank closures in four states Friday cost the federal government an additional $334 million in losses.

Atlantic Southern Financial Group Inc. reported a $4 million net loss for the second quarter, compared with a $23.8 million loss a year earlier.