WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators have closed a small lender in
Ohio, marking the eighth U.S. bank failure of 2014 after 24 closures
last year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has taken over Cincinnati-based Columbia Savings
Bank.
The lender, which operated a single branch, had about $36.5 million in assets and $29.5 million in
deposits as of March 31.
United
Fidelity Bank, based in Evansville, Indiana, has agreed to assume
Columbia Savings’ deposits and to buy essentially all of the failed
bank’s assets.
Columbia Savings’ failure is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $5.3 million.
U.S. bank failures have been declining since they peaked in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis and
the Great Recession.
Only three banks went under in 2007. That jumped to 25 in 2008, after the financial meltdown, and
ballooned to 140 in 2009.
In
2010, regulators seized 157 banks, the most in any year since the
savings and loan crisis two decades ago. The FDIC has said 2010 likely
was the high-water mark for bank failures from the recession. They
declined to 92 in 2011 and fell to 51 in 2012.
In a strong economy, about four or five banks close annually.
From
2008 through 2011, bank failures cost the deposit insurance fund an
estimated $88 billion, and the fund fell into the red in 2009. With
failures slowing, the fund’s balance turned positive in the second
quarter of 2011. The fund had a $47.2 billion balance as of Dec. 31.
The FDIC has said it expects bank failures from 2012 through 2016 will cost the fund $10 billion.