WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators have closed a small bank in Illinois, bringing to 40 the
number of U.S. bank failures this year.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday seized Waukegan Savings Bank, based in
Waukegan, Ill.
The bank had about $88.9 million in assets and $77.5 million in deposits as of March
31.
First
Midwest Bank, based in Itasca, Ill., agreed to assume all of Waukegan
Savings’ deposits and purchase essentially all of the failed bank’s
assets.
The failure of Waukegan Savings is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $19.8
million.
The bank, which had two branches, is the sixth FDIC-insured institution in Illinois
to fail this year.
U.S. bank closures are running at a slower pace than in 2011; 61 banks had failed by
this time last year.
Bank
closures have slowed sharply since peaking in 2010 in the wake of the
financial crisis. In 2007, just three banks went under. That number
jumped to 25 in 2008, after the 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 Great Recession.
From
2008 through 2011, bank failures cost the fund an estimated $88
billion. The deposit insurance fund fell into the red in 2009. But with
failures slowing, the fund’s balance turned positive in the second
quarter of last year. By Dec. 31, it stood at $11.8 billion, according
to the FDIC.
The FDIC expects failures from 2012 through 2016 to cost $12 billion.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.