WASHINGTON -- The shutdowns of five banks at the end of last week brought the total for the year to 110, with $38.1 billion in assets, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
The figures are in line with the FDIC's latest projections for insured commercial bank failures in 1992 - 100 to 125 institutions with $40 billion in aggregate assets. Those estimates were reduced from a previously anticipated 200 to 239 failure of institutions with $86 billion to $116 billion in assets.
$1.4 Billion in Assets
After dealing with more than 200 failures each year from 1987 through 1989, the FDIC saw 159 bank closings in 1990 and 108 last year.
The most recent handful of failures had $1.4 billion in total assets, including $548 million at First New York Bank for Business and $472 million at Metro North State Bank in Kansas City, Mo.
Merchants Bank of New York agreed to assume $493 million of the deposits and $85.6 million of the assets of First New YOrk, chartered in the mid-1970s as First Women's Bank. It was unable to overcome problems in its commercial real estate loan portfolio.
Metro North State Bank was closed and reopened as a government-run bridge bank called New Metro North. W. Ronald Dietz was hired to run the bank.
This is Mr. Dietz's third assignment at a troubled institution. Most recently, he headed American Savings Bank, a $3.9 billion-asset thrift in White Plains, N.Y., that the FDIC seized on June 12.
Also closed last weekend were:
* Guaranty First Trust Co., Waltham, Mass., with $326 million in assets. It was acquired by Fleet Financial Group's Fleet Bank of Massachusetts.
* Investors Bank and Trust Co., Gretna, La., with $50 million is assets. It was bought by Delta Bank and Trust Co., Belle Chasse, La.
* Statewide Thrift and Loan Co., Redwood City, Calif., with $10 million in assets. It was taken over by Fireside Thrift Co., Newark, Calif.
Kansas Takeover
One thrift was closed last Friday: the $225 million-asset Overland Park Savings and Loan Association of Overland Park, Kan.
The Office of Thrift Supervision chartered a new federal mutual institution called Overland Park Federal Savings and Loan Association, which will be operated by the Resolution Trust Corp.
Advanced Financial Inc., a mortgage company in Shawnee, Kan., said the seizure meant an end do its previously announced effort to acquire Overland Park Savings. Its plan to improve Overland Park's capital position was rejected by thrift regulators.
OTS said Overland Park Savings was the 51st thrift failure of 1992, bringing assets of those failed institutions' to $38.9 billion.
