WASHINGTON — Failure activity accelerated late Friday, as regulators shut four banks totaling just over $1 billion in assets.
Regulators closed $539 million-asset Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast, in Florida, as well as two Midwestern banks: $272 million-asset Corn Belt Bank and Trust Company in Illinois, and $130 million-asset Sherman County Bank in Nebraska.
Later, regulators closed $73 million-asset Pinnacle Bank in Beaverton, Ore., and transferred virtually all of its banking operations to Washington Trust Bank, in Spokane.
The four failures together will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s insurance fund an estimated $340 million, the agency said, and stretched the year's failure total to 13. Bank failures are on pace to blow by last year's 25 bank collapses.
The FDIC was able to protect all the depositors from the failed banks through purchase and assumption agreements.
The FDIC transferred most of Riverside's $424 million in deposits to TIB Bank in Naples, Fla. The transaction did not include the Cape Coral bank's $142.6 million in brokered deposits, which the FDIC will pay directly to brokers. TIB Bank paid a deposit premium of 1.3%, and agreed to buy roughly $125 million of Riverside's assets. The FDIC estimated that failure will cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $201 million.
The nonbrokered portion of Corn Belt's $234 million in deposits was transferred to Carlinville National Bank, also in Illinois. The acquirer also agreed to buy $60.7 million of Pittsfield bank's assets and pay a 1.75% deposit premium. Corn Belt's failure was estimated to cost the agency $100 million.
Sherman County Bank, based in Loup City, Neb., had all of its $85 million in deposits transferred to Heritage Bank in Wood River. The FDIC said Heritage agreed to pay a 6% deposit premium and acquire approximately $21.8 million in the failed bank's assets. The FDIC estimated that the failure will cost $28 million to the Deposit Insurance Fund.
Meanwhile, Washington Trust assumed all of Pinnacle's deposits. It also bought nearly all of the failed bank's assets at a $7.6 million discount; the FDIC agreed to share in the losses on $66 million of those assets. The FDIC estimated the failure's cost at $12.1 million.
The industry, reeling from a vicious credit downturn, has now lost 10 banks in two weeks after regulators closed three banks on each of the previous two Fridays.
