The losses from the mortgage securities frauds and the subsequent bubble collapse continue to debilitate the US financial system, particularly the regional banks, in a slow bleed costing the US government additional millions each week. The public relations campaign promoting the idea that the bank bailouts are done and successful, and that the US made money on this egregious abuse of public monies is patently false, and probably can be described as corporatist propaganda.
The banks continue to mount a campaign to resist reform and regulation. They are taking advantage of the weakness of the Obama administration in failing to reform the banking system through liquidations and managed bankruptcies, including indictments and investigations as was seen in the Savings and Loan scandal.
It is difficult to continue to assume good intentions in this administration, or even mere incompetence. The objections put up by Geithner and Summers to the appointment of Elizabeth Warren as the head of the new consumer protection agency shows how reactionary they continue to be, and resistant to fundamental reforms.
American Banker
Failures on Two Coasts Stretch Toll for Year to 108
By Joe Adler
Friday, July 30, 2010
Five bank closures in four states Friday cost the federal government an additional $334 million in losses.
Regulators shuttered the $373 million-asset Coastal Community Bank in Panama City Beach, Fla., the $66 million-asset Bayside Savings Bank in Port Saint Joe, Fla., the $168 million-asset NorthWest Bank and Trust in Acworth, Ga., the $529 million-asset The Cowlitz Bank in Longview, Wash., and the $768-asset LibertyBank in Eugene, Ore. The failures brought the year's total to 108.
The hammered Southeast bore the brunt of the failure activity, as it has for so many Fridays since the financial crisis began. Twenty banks have been seized in Florida in 2010, while 11 have failed in Georgia so far this year.
The two Florida institutions that failed Friday went to one buyer: Centennial Bank in Conway, Ark. The acquirer agreed to take over Coastal Community's $363 million in deposits, Bayside Savings' $52 million in deposits and roughly all of the assets of both institutions.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. agreed to share losses with Centennial on $303 million of Coastal Community's assets, and $48 million of Bayside Savings' assets. The two failures were estimated to cost the FDIC, respectively, $94 million and $16 million.
Meanwhile, the failure of NorthWest in Georgia was estimated to cost the agency nearly $40 million. The FDIC sold all of NorthWest's $159 million in deposits, and essentially all of its assets, to State Bank and Trust Co. in Macon. The acquirer agreed to share losses with the FDIC on about $107 million of the failed bank's assets.
Elsewhere, the FDIC sold all of The Cowlitz Bank's $514 million in deposits to Heritage Bank of Olympia, Wash., which paid a 1% premium. Heritage also acquired about $329 million of the failed bank's assets, and will share losses with the FDIC on about $161 million of those assets. The FDIC estimated the failure will cost $69 million.
Home Federal Bank in Nampa, Idaho, paid a 1% premium to assume all of LibertyBank's $718 million in deposits, and agreed to acquire $420 million of its assets. The FDIC and Home Federal will share losses on $300 million of those assets. The failure's cost was estimated at $115 million.
