WASHINGTON — Regulators shut a $104 million-asset thrift in West Virginia late Friday, the 12th depository institution to fail this year amid heavy real estate losses throughout the industry.
The Office of Thrift Supervision said Northfork-based Ameribank Inc. had "excessive growth in construction rehabilitation loans" among its problems. Such loans finance improvements to distressed properties, usually in low- and moderate-income communities.
The regulator said the thrift had failed to rebound despite repeated warnings, including an October 2007 cease-and-desist order that criticized Ameribank for not following a previous directive from the agency.
"The OTS determined that Ameribank was 'critically undercapitalized' and the institution was unable to develop a viable plan to restore capital to adequate levels," the agency said in a press release Friday evening.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., appointed as the receiver for the failed thrift, said all of its $102 million in deposits will be covered by transactions with two other institutions. Pioneer Community Bank Inc. in Iaeger will assume all deposits for Ameribank's five West Virginia branches, which will reopen on Monday.
The Citizens Savings Bank in Martins Ferry, Ohio, will assume deposits at Ameribank's three branches in that state. Those branches will reopen Saturday.
Pioneer agreed to pay a 2% premium for its share of the deposits, while Citizens Savings will pay a 1.14% premium, the FDIC said. All brokered deposits will be covered through the transactions.
The acquiring banks together will also purchase $23 million in assets from Ameribank, the FDIC said. The resolution is expected to cost the agency's Deposit Insurance Fund an estimated $42 million.
Ameribank, the first West Virginia failure since the 1999 closure of First National Bank of Keystone, was the second bank to fail this month and the seventh since the dramatic closure of IndyMac Bancorp in California on July 11.
On Sept. 5, regulators closed the $2 billion-asset Silver State Bank in Henderson, Nev. It was preceded by the Aug. 29 closure of $1.1 billion-asset Integrity Bank in Alpharetta, Ga.
