By: Carrie Bay

The nation’s failed-bank tally continues to climb. Regulators closed the doors on five more financial institutions over the weekend – two in Florida and one each in Georgia, Oregon, and Washington. That pushes the number of bank closings for the year to 108.

In Florida, Port Saint Joe’s Bayside Savings Bank and Panama City Beach’s Coastal Community Bank were both closed. Centennial Bank in Conway, Arkansas agreed to assume all the deposits and essentially all the assets of the two failed institutions.

Collectively, the two Florida banks operated 13 branches. Bayside Savings had total deposits of $52.4 million and total assets of $66.1 million. Coastal Community Bank had $363.2 million in deposits and $372.9 million in assets.

Centennial Bank did not pay the FDIC a premium for the deposits of the failed banks. It entered into loss-share transactions on $48.3 million of Bayside Savings Bank’s assets and $302.8 million of Coastal Community Bank’s assets.

The FDIC estimates that the cost to its insurance fund will be $16.2 million for Bayside Savings Bank’s failure and $94.5 million for Coastal Community Bank. So far in 2010, 20 Florida banks have gone under – more than in any other state.

In Acworth, Georgia, it was NorthWest Bank and Trust that found regulators at its doors this weekend. With two local branch locations, NorthWest had $159.4 million in deposits and $167.7 million in assets. State Bank and Trust Company of Macon, Georgia stepped in to take over the operations of the failed institution. State Bank and Trust did not pay a premium for the deposits and will share with the FDIC any losses on approximately $107.6 million of the acquired assets. NorthWest’s failure will cost the FDIC $39.8 million.

LibertyBank in Eugene, Oregon operated 15 branch locations, with $718.5 million in deposits and assets of $768.2 million. The FDIC brokered a deal with Home Federal Bank in Nampa, Idaho, which picked up LibertyBank’s deposits for a premium of 1.0 percent and agreed to purchase approximately $419.7 million of the failed bank’s assets. The Oregon bank’s closing is expected to cost the FDIC $115.3 million.

In Longview, Washington, the Cowlitz Bank was shuttered by regulators. Its nine branches, $513.9 million in deposits, and $529.3 million in assets were acquired by Heritage Bank., based in Olympia, Washington. Heritage paid the FDIC a premium of 1.0 percent for the deposits and entered into a loss-share transaction on $160.9 million of the failed bank’s assets. The closing of Cowlitz Bank will cost the FDIC an estimated $68.9 million.

http://www.dsnews.com/articles/five-more-community-based-lenders-shut-down-by-regulators-2010-08-02