Illinois Bank Falls, Marking Nation’s 43rd Failure in 2012

The fall of an Illinois bank brought the year's national bank failure tally to 43, ""FDIC"":http://www.fdic.gov/ announced Friday.

[IMAGE]

The ""Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's Division of Banking"":http://www.idfpr.com/Bankingdefault.asp 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"":http://www.oldplanktrailbank.com/ in New Lenox, Illinois.

In addition to assuming all of First United's estimated $316.9 million in total deposits, Old Plank Trail agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's $328.4 million in assets. As of Saturday, all five First United locations are now Old Plank Trail branches.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of ""Wintrust Financial Corporation"":http://www.wintrust.com/, Old Plank Trail has an opportunity for growth in the acquisition. Edward J. Wehmer, president and CEO of Wintrust, said Old Plank Trail's new locations will serve as a foothold for the bank in the community.

""The FDIC-assisted transaction provides a great opportunity to expand our presence in the southern suburbs of Chicago, where we currently operate Old Plank Trail Community Bank,"" Wehmer said. ""This transaction is another step for Wintrust as we continue to increase our role as Chicago's bank.""

FDIC estimated the damage to the Deposit Insurance Fund to be $48.6 million.

While the number of bank failures so far in 2012 is low compared to recent years, Illinois seems to be having a more difficult time than most other states, with First United marking the state's seventh closure this year.