Six U.S. Banks Collapse as Community & Southern Acquires Three

[marmar]

By Dakin Campbell

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Georgia’s Community & Southern Bank picked up $800 million in deposits as it acquired three of the six U.S. banks that collapsed this week, bringing the year’s failure count to 125.

Banks in Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and Wisconsin were closed by regulators, according to statements posted yesterday on the website of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named receiver. This week’s failures cost the agency’s deposit- insurance fund $347.6 million.

“Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship in order to retain their deposit insurance coverage,” the FDIC said in each of the statements.

Banks are failing at a faster pace than last year, which saw the most failures since 1992, as real estate values remain depressed and economic recovery stays sluggish. Regulators closed 140 banks last year. The FDIC’s list of “problem” banks climbed to 829 lenders with $403 billion in assets at the end of the second quarter, a 7 percent increase from the 775 on the list in the first quarter, the FDIC said last month.

Community & Southern Chief Executive Officer Patrick Frawley paid a 1 percent premium to acquire Douglasville, Georgia’s First Commerce Community Bank, and Bank of Ellijay, based in the Georgia town of the same name, the FDIC said. The acquirer paid a premium of 1.25 percent for deposits of Winder, Georgia-based Peoples Bank. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=acLDQp9G6Joo&pos=4