2nd UPDATE: Regulators Close Banks In Maryland, Minnesota
August 28 2009 - 8:08PM
Dow Jones News
Federal and state regulators Friday shuttered banks in Maryland
and Minnesota, bringing the number of failed banks nationwide this
year to 83.
U.S. regulators closed Bradford Bank of Baltimore, while
announcing an agreement with Manufacturers & Traders Trust Co.
(MTB) to assume all deposits of the failed institution.
Mainstreet Bank of Forest Lake, Minn., was also closed by the
state's Department of Commerce, with Stillwater-based Central Bank
taking over the deposits.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named receiver of
both banks, estimated the agency's deposit insurance fund would
take a hit of $95 million from Mainstreet's closure and $97 million
on the Bradford failure.
Bank failures have reached levels not seen since the
savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1990s as the economic slump
continues to take its toll on the financial sector. In 2008,
regulators shut down 25 banks.
The closings have cost the FDIC about $19 billion, and the
deposit insurance fund that protects more than $4.5 trillion in
U.S. bank deposits is quickly running out. The FDIC said Thursday
that the fund held just $10.4 billion at the end of June, the
lowest level since the S&L crisis.
Meanwhile, the agency added another 111 names in the second
quarter to its list of "problem" banks considered at higher risk of
failure, bringing the total to 416, despite signs of improvement in
the broader economy.
Bradford's nine branches will reopen Monday as branches of
M&T, of Buffalo, N.Y.
In addition to assuming all $383 million of Bradford's deposits,
M&T also agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed
bank's assets, which totaled $452 million.
The FDIC and M&T entered into a loss-share transaction on
about $338 million in assets, in which M&T will share in the
losses on the asset pools covered under the agreement.
Mainstreet's eight branches will reopen Saturday as operations
of Central Bank.
Central Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.10% to assume the
$434 million in deposits. It also entered into a loss-share
transaction with the FDIC on about $268 million of Mainstreet's
$459 million of assets.
-By Tom Barkley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9275;
tom.barkley@dowjones.com