Seven failed banks holding a combined $14 billion in assets failed Friday in what was yet another busy night for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The failures, estimated to cost the FDIC $1.8 billion, included four banks each with more than $1 billion in assets, a Midwestern bankers' bank and two institutions that attracted no buyer.
The largest failure was $6 billion-asset First Federal Bank of California in Santa Monica. The thrift, which recorded seven straight quarterly losses, was sold to OneWest Bank of Pasadena. That failure is expected to cost $619 million.
Regulators also closed $4 billion-asset Imperial Capital Bank in La Jolla, Calif.; $585 million-asset Independent Bankers' Bank in Springfield, Ill.; $1.8 billion-asset Peoples First Community Bank in Panama City, Fla.; $1.5 billion-asset New South Federal Savings Bank in Irondale, Ala.; $294 million-asset RockBridge Commercial Bank in Atlanta; and $169 million-asset Citizens State Bank in New Baltimore, Mich.
The failure of First Federal was noteworthy not only for the collapse of another large thrift in the Golden State, but it was a key acquisition for OneWest. The institution was formed by a group of private-equity investors early this year to take over the operations of failed IndyMac Bank, one of the first large victims of the mortgage debacle.
OneWest did not pay a premium to assume all of First Federal's $4.5 billion of deposits. It also agreed to acquire roughly all of its assets and share losses with the FDIC on a $5.3 billion piece of First Federal's portfolio.
Regulators sold Imperial Capital to City National Bank in Los Angeles, which agreed to acquire just over $3 billion in assets of the failed institution.
Imperial Capital's nine branches will reopen Monday as part of City National, which paid a 0.24% premium to assume all of the failed bank's $2.8 billion in deposits. The acquirer and the FDIC agreed to a loss-sharing plan on $2.5 billion of Imperial Capital's assets. The failure is expected to cost $619 million.
Closing out the busiest failure year since the savings and loan crisis - the seven failures stretched the year's total to 140 - the FDIC not only handled big institutions Friday but also employed an array of resolution tools.
The FDIC created a bridge institution, Independent Bankers' Bridge Bank, to allow the failed Illinois institution's 450 client banks to access their correspondent services as usual. The agency said the bridge bank will allow the continuation of pre-failure efforts to sell the bank.
It was not the first failure this year of an institution specializing in correspondent services. That label belonged to $4 billion-asset Silverton Bank in Atlanta, which failed on May 1 and was also folded into a bridge bank.
"The creation of the bridge bank allows the client banks to maintain their correspondent banking relationship with the least amount of disruption," the FDIC said of Independent.
The FDIC estimated the resolution would cost $68 million.
Meanwhile, the FDIC said uninsured depositors would lose funds in the closures of RockBridge and Citizens State.
Without a buyer for Rockbridge, the agency said it would mail checks to customers for the $290 million of insured funds in the bank. (It had about $2 million of uninsured deposits). That failure is estimated to cost $124 million. It was the 25th failed bank in Georgia this year.
In a similar case with Citizens State, the FDIC set up a temporary deposit insurance national bank to house the insured retail deposits from the failed bank. Deposit Insurance National Bank of New Baltimore will stay open for just 45 days to give customers time to move their accounts to another depository, the FDIC said. The agency estimated about $800,000 of the failed bank's $157 million of deposits are uninsured.
Huntington National Bank in Columbus, Ohio, will provide operational support for the temporary charter. The resolution is estimated to cost $77 million.
Buyers were found for both Peoples First and New South Federal.
Peoples First, the 14th failed institution in Florida this year, was sold to Hancock Bank in Gulfport, Miss.
Hancock paid a 1% premium to assume all of the failed thrift's $1.7 billion in deposits, and also agreed to acquire $1.6 billion of its assets. The acquirer and the FDIC agreed to a loss-sharing agreement on $1.4 billion of those assets.
The resolution is estimated to cost $557 million.
Beal Bank in Plano, Texas, did not pay a premium to assume all of New South Federal's $1.2 billion in deposits. Beal will acquire roughly all of the failed thrift's assets, sharing losses with the FDIC on a $1.2 billion-asset piece of the portfolio. The resolution is estimated to cost $212 million.
