WASHINGTON — Regulators closed the $2 billion-asset Georgian Bank in Atlanta on Friday, the industry's 95th failure of the year.
Despite its relatively small size, regulators estimated it would take a heavy toll on the Deposit Insurance Fund, costing $892 million.
The failure came less than a month after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a sweeping cease-and-desist order against the bank.
The Aug. 31 action cited the bank for poor board management, policies that were "detrimental to the bank," and operating with a large quantity of bad loans without an adequate supply of capital reserves.
The enforcement action, among other things, ordered the board to get more involved with the bank's affairs and retain qualified management. It heavily restricted whom the bank could extend credit to and required a reduction of concentrations in risky loan types.
The bank, chartered in 2001, had been profitable for most of 2008, and earned $4 million last year.
But it took a nosedive in the second quarter of this year, losing $37 million. At the end of the quarter, it had $306 million of assets in nonaccrual status.
The FDIC announced Friday that the bank's assets and $2 billion in deposits would be sold to First Citizens Bank and Trust Co., based in Columbia S.C. The failed bank's five branches will reopen Monday under the First Citizens name. The South Carolina bank entered into a loss sharing agreement with the FDIC to take over virtually all of the failed bank's assets.
Georgian Bank's collapse was the 19th failure in the state this year, and marks another time a significantly sized institution has been taken over by the government.
On six of the last seven Fridays, regulators have closed at least one institution with over $1 billion in assets.
The pace of failures has slowed somewhat. Eleven institutions were closed in September, compared with 15 in the previous month.
