FDIC Finds Buyer for Georgia Bank But Strikes Out in Minnesota

Two banks failed on Friday, with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. only finding a buyer for one of the fallen institutions.

The two failures took the year's tally to eleven. Together, the failures are expected to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $106.3 million.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the $434.1 million-asset Home Savings of America in Little Falls, Minn. As the receiver of the failed bank, the FDIC was unable to find an institution willing to buy Home Saving, so it approved a payout of the insured deposits. The FDIC said in a press release that it would directly mail checks to depositors with insured money.

At Dec. 31, the bank had $432.2 million of total deposits, but the FDIC said the amount of uninsured depositors will be determined once it obtains more information from customers with accounts that exceeded the $250,000 limit. The FDIC added that it will retain the failed bank's assets for later disposition. The failure is expected to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $38.8 million.

Earlier in the evening, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed the $278.9 million-asset Central Bank of Georgia in Ellaville. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. entered into an agreement with Ameris Bank of Moultrie, Ga., to buy the bank's assets.

Ameris agreed to assume the bank's $266.6 million in deposits. Ameris and the FDIC agreed to a loss-share agreement on $192.8 million of Central Bank's assets. The failure is expected to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $67.5 million.

The $3 billion-asset Ameris, a unit of Ameris Bancorp, has been among the most prolific buyers of failed banks this cycle. The Central deal is it eighth in Georgia. It has also picked up one failure in Florida.

Although the pace of failures has slowed considerably, Edwin W. Hortman Jr., president and chief executive of Ameris, said in a press release earlier this month that he is expecting more to come this year.

"We continue to look at potential failed bank acquisitions and believe that 2012 will provide enough opportunities to realize growth in balances of covered loans," Hortman said. "Covered loans refer to those covered by loss-share agreements. Our covered asset platform is highly scalable and our current focus is heavily centered on continuing to participate as we have in the past."

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