Tag Archives: Bank Failure

Neither Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney has seemed particularly enthusiastic about discussing housing on the national stage, but Wednesday's debates saw a brief skirmish between the two candidates about regulation for the mortgage industry. The fleeting exchange on banking and mortgage regulation comes at an apt time, as New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit earlier in the week against JPMorgan Chase over mortgage securities fraud committed by a former Bear Stearns unit.

Three men were arrested Monday for bank fraud connected to the fall of New York's Park Avenue Bank in 2010, the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced. Wilbur Anthony Huff, Matthew L. Morris, and Allen Reichman were presented in federal court for their alleged roles in the collapse of the Manhattan bank. Huff, Morris, and former bank CEO Charles Antonucci--arrested in 2010--are accused of defrauding regulators to secure $11 million in TARP funds.

Mortgage-related business closings and failures are on track to post fewer incidences in 2012 than any year since the mortgage crisis began. In the third quarter, 17 mortgage-related businesses failed, down from 25 in the previous quarter and 31 in the same quarter last year, according to a findings released by Mortgage Daily. Bank closings followed this trend, falling from 15 failings in the second quarter to 12 in the third. Both numbers are down from the third quarter of last year, when 26 banks failed.

The fall of an Illinois bank brought the year's national bank failure tally to 43, FDIC announced Friday. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's Division of Banking closed First United Bank in Crete, Illinois, appointing FDIC as receiver. To protect depositors of the failed bank, FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Old Plank Trail Community Bank in New Lenox, Illinois.

The FDIC wants you to help it unload its bad assets - and by you, we mean only investors. And by investors, the agency is searching for women and minorities in particular. According to a recent release, the FDIC will conduct a number of workshops for interested investors on how to go about buying assets from failed banks. The agency will hold these to-dos in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York across September and October. Workshops will touch on issues like structured sales transactions, pre-qualification processes, and details about the Small Investor Program and Investor Match Program.

The FDIC announced Friday the closure of First Commercial Bank in Bloomington, Minnesota. The bank was closed by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, which appointed the FDIC as receiver. The FDIC announced that it entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Republic Bank & Trust Company in Louisville, Kentucky, to assume all of the deposits of First Commercial Bank. The sole branch of First Commercial Bank reopened Monday as a branch of Republic Bank & Trust Company. Republic Bank agreed to assume of all of the bank's deposits and assets.

As bank failures dwindle, FDIC-backed institutions continue to see their own coffers swell, with an agency report finding that banks with government guarantees earned $34.5 billion over the second quarter. And banks seemed to sweat a little less over the last quarter. The FDIC reported that banks with its seal of approval saw their year-over-year increases for the 12th straight quarter. Loan balances meanwhile ticked up by $102 billion, increasing for the fourth time in the last five quarters.

State regulators shuttered a bank in Georgia this weekend, raising the bar to 39 for bank failures nationally this year. Jasper-based Jasper Banking Company fell dark with about $216.7 million in total assets and $213.1 million in total deposits. Stearns Bank National Association swooped in to sign a purchase-and-assumption agreement with the FDIC, as well as a loss-share transaction on $106 million of the assets. The acquirer assumed essentially all of the assets and deposits, along with three branches, which reopened under new management on Saturday.

Five banks failed Friday, requiring an estimated total of $150 million from the FDIC. Banks failed in Illinois, Kansas, Georgia, and Florida with the greatest expense stemming from a single bank in Illinois. The FDIC estimates the failure of Second Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chicago will lead to a total cost of $76.9 million. Hinsdale Bank & Trust Company, based in Hinsdale, Illinois, has assumed all the deposits of Second Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chicago as well as $14.2 million in assets, mostly cash.

A Georgia bank closed Friday, with state authorities appointing the FDIC as receiver. The banker, accused of embezzling millions from the shuttered institution, remains missing after a two-week absence. Montgomery Bank & Trust, located in Alley, Georgia, closed its doors Friday, reopening as part of Ameris Bank. Ameris entered a purchase agreement with the FDIC to assume all of Montgomery Bank├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós deposits and about $12.4 million of its assets ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô mainly cash and cash equivalents, according to the FDIC.