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Since 2019, 15 banks have failed, with five banks failing in 2023 alone. On October 18, 2024, First National Bank of Linday's demise marked the second bank failure of the year. The collapse raised questions about whether the failure was caused by errors at the bank or by economic issues that could affect other institutions.
First Bank & Trust Co. in Duncan, Oklahoma, assumed the First National Bank of Lindsay's insured deposits. The only office of the First National Bank of Lindsay resumed normal business hours as a branch of First Bank & Trust Co. on October 21.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the bank "after identifying false and deceptive bank records and other information suggesting fraud that revealed depletion of the bank's capital," the agency said in a press release.
"The OCC also found that the bank was in an unsafe or unsound condition to transact business and that the bank's assets were less than its obligations to its creditors and others," the regulator said.
Read more: FHFA took action against Federal Home Loan banks after bank failures
State banking groups say the demise of the $107.8 million-asset firm was due to issues at the First National, but the questionable details surrounding the bank's CEO's departure and regulators' allegations of fraud are raising alarms for some bank industry experts.
While the bank was relatively small for the industry, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimates the failure could cost the agency's Deposit Insurance Fund more than $43 million to wind down. In addition to the hefty cost, experts say discrepancies in the bank's accounting filings have left questions unanswered.
Read more: One year after SVB collapse, updates on the 5 bank failures of 2023
"We don't know whether some of these depositors had retirement accounts, trust, business accounts, escrow … so it's hard to say how much they were covered," industry veteran Brian Byrne told American Banker's Ebrima Santos Sanneh. "But when I saw the point about [covering] the other 50% after we liquidate the assets … that's a big red flag for me, because they didn't do that with [Silicon Valley Bank] or Signature Bank, because those are bigger — and by the way, they weren't [Global Systemically Important Banks] either."
Catch up on the most recent bank failures:
Source: S&P
Bank
| Location
| Date of Failure
|
The First National Bank of Lindsay
| Lindsay, OK
| 10/18/2024
|
Republic First Bank
| Philadelphia, PA
| 04/26/24
|
Citizens Bank
| Sac City, IA
| 11/3/2023
|
Heartland Tri-State Bank
| Elkhart, KS
| 7/28/2023
|
First Republic Bank
| San Francisco, CA
| 4/28/2023
|
Signature Bank
| New York, NY
| 3/12/2023
|
Silicon Valley Bank
| Santa Clara, CA
| 3/10/2023
|
Almena State Bank
| Almena, KS
| 10/23/2020
|
First City Bank of Florida
| Fort Walton Beach, FL
| 10/16/2020
|
First State Bank
| Barboursville, WV
| 4/3/2020
|
Ericson State Bank
| Ericson, NE
| 02/14/20
|
City National Bank of New Jersey
| Newark, NJ
| 11/1/2019
|
Resolute Bank
| Maumee, OH
| 10/25/2019
|
Louisa Community Bank
| Louisa, KY
| 10/25/2019
|
Enloe State Bank
| Cooper, TX
| 5/31/2019
|