Washington

WASHINGTON — For the second Friday in a row, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. relied on new-bank capital to find homes for the operations of failed institutions.

Loan sales helped a growing number of community banks push some of their problems out the door in the fourth quarter.

WASHINGTON — Regulators seized five banks in as many states Friday, bringing the 2010 failure total to nine.

Its numbers are still a bit wanting, but Washington Federal Inc. is distinguishing itself from the pack of recession-hit also-rans in the beleaguered Pacific Northwest.

Friday brought the first failure of the year as Horizon Bank in Bellingham, Wash., was closed by state regulators.

President Obama is due to meet today with 11 chief executives of community banks, following up on a meeting with the heads of larger institutions last week.

Banner Corp. in Walla Walla, Wash., terminated a common stock offering Friday, citing "current market conditions."

The Federal Reserve has announced enforcement actions against two banking companies in Washington State and one in Kansas.

Washington Banking Co. started a public offering of at least $30 million of its common stock as the small northwest Washington company looks to boost its capital levels.

In a move that should help stressed banks avoid public relations fiascoes, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has toned down the harsh wording of orders it issues to such institutions.

Another round of writedowns on pooled trust-preferred securities has left Rainier Pacific Financial Group Inc. and its bank unit significantly undercapitalized.

Horizon Financial Corp. in Bellingham, Wash., has warned that it may fail because the company and its bank unit are critically undercapitalized.

Donald Marron, whose Lightyear Capital LLC agreed to inject $40 million into Cascade, said that his team has met with roughly 150 management teams at midsize community banks in the past year.

Just three months after saying its problems had begun to level off, Sterling Financial Corp. in Spokane, Wash., unexpectedly ousted its longtime leader and was ordered by regulators to boost capital levels.

Frontier Financial Corp. of Everett, Wash., is scrambling for capital again, after announcing Monday that its lifesaving deal with a blank-check company had fallen apart.

The $1.8 billion-asset company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday that it has 60 days to submit a plan for maintaining sufficient capital, under a written agreement it signed Sept. 15 with the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Washington Federal Inc. in Seattle is raising $300 million of capital to support its growth and possibly make acquisitions.

Time ran out on Corus Bank late Friday as regulators closed the once-high-flying Chicago condominium lender and sold its operations to another institution.

SP Acquisition Holdings Inc., a blank check company with $429 million to spend, has agreed to buy the $4 billion-asset Frontier through a share exchange and then recapitalize its bank.