Failed banks mount; Ga, Ala banks shut

08-22-2009 • Forbes

The toll of failed banks is mounting, with 80 institutions closed by regulators so far this year - the most since 1992 at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. The latest came Friday with the seizures of two small banks in Georgia and one in Alabama: ebank, located in Atlanta, with $143 million in assets and $130 million in deposits; First Coweta, based in Newnan, Ga., with $167 million in assets and $155 million in deposits; and CapitalSouth Bank, based in Birmingham, Ala., with $617 million in assets and $546 million in deposits. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the failed banks, and approved the sale of some or all of their assets and deposits to other institutions. In contrast to the big bank failures early in the financial crisis, many of the recently shuttered banks were undone not by exotic mortgage products but by garden-variety loans. At the same time, a knot of big, complex banks collapsing in recent months is sapping billions fro