San Francisco: Regulators shut banks in Maryland, Illinois, Florida and Utah, pushing the number of US failures to 26 this year and placing more pressure on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) to dispose of a growing pile of toxic assets.
The FDIC was unable to find buyers for two banks — Centennial Bank in Ogden, Utah, and Waterfield Bank of Germantown, Maryland. In the largest of Friday's failures by assets, Boca Raton, Florida-based Sun American Bank was purchased by First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co.
"South Florida is a great market for our company, especially with our focus on individuals, small- to mid-sized businesses and the medical community," Frank B. Holding Jr, CEO of First-Citizens, said in a statement.
Highest levels
Lenders are collapsing at the fastest pace in 17 years amid losses on residential and commercial real estate loans made at the height of the market. US "problem" banks climbed to the highest level since 1992 in the fourth quarter and FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair warned February 23 that the pace of failures will "pick up" and exceed last year's total of 140.
The FDIC sold $1.81 billion (Dh6.64 billion) of notes on Friday that are backed by mortgage securities collected from failed banks.
