Regulators shut down small banks in Georgia, Michigan; makes 70 US bank failures this year

Regulators shut small banks in Georgia, Michigan

WASHINGTON — Regulators on Friday shut down small banks in Georgia and Michigan, bringing the number of U.S. bank failures this year to 70.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Satilla Community Bank, based in Saint Marys, Ga., with about $134 million in deposits and $135.7 million in assets.

The FDIC also took over New Liberty Bank in Plymouth, Mich. The bank has about $101.8 million in deposits and $109.1 million in assets.

Ameris Bank, based in Moultrie, Ga., agreed to acquire the assets and deposits of Satilla Community Bank. In addition, the FDIC and Ameris Bank agreed to share losses on $101 million of Satilla Community Bank’s loans and other assets.

The failure of Satilla Community Bank is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund about $31.3 million.

Satilla Community Bank was the eighth bank to fail this year in Georgia, one of the states where the meltdown in the real estate market brought an avalanche of soured mortgage loans. There were 25 bank failures in Georgia last year, more than in any other state. Also high on the list are California, Florida and Illinois.

Regulators said Bank of Ann Arbor in Ann Arbor, Mich., agreed to acquire the sole branch of New Liberty Bank. The FDIC and Bank of Ann Arbor will share losses on $95.2 million of New Liberty Bank’s assets. New Liberty Bank is the third bank to fail in Michigan this year.

With 70 closures so far this year, the pace of bank failures is double that of 2009, already a brisk year for shutdowns. By this time last year, regulators had closed 33 U.S. banks. The pace has accelerated as losses mount on loans made for commercial property and development.

The number of bank failures is expected to peak this year and to be slightly higher than the 140 that fell in 2009. That was the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of the savings and loan crisis. The 2009 failures cost the insurance fund more than $30 billion. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force, and only three succumbed in 2007.

As losses have mounted on loans made for commercial property and development, the growing bank failures have sapped billions of dollars out of the deposit insurance fund. It fell into the red last year, hitting a $20.9 billion deficit as of Dec. 31.

The number of banks on the FDIC’s confidential “problem” list jumped to 702 in the fourth quarter from 552 three months earlier, even as the industry squeezed out a small profit. Still, nearly one in every three banks reported a net loss for the latest quarter.

The FDIC expects the cost of resolving failed banks to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.

The agency mandated last year that banks prepay about $45 billion in premiums, for 2010 through 2012, to replenish the insurance fund.

Depositors’ money — insured up to $250,000 per account — is not at risk, with the FDIC backed by the government. Apart from the fund, the FDIC has about $66 billion in cash and securities available in reserve to cover losses at failed banks.

AP Business Writer Tim Paradis in New York contributed to this report.