Two Top 10 Banks Among This Week's Failures

This week, two of the 10 riskiest commercial banks in the U.S. were taken over by regulators. Additionally, the first larger bank, one with over $1 billion in total assets, in almost three months failed.

6th ranked Enterprise Banking Company of McDonough, GA closed with approximately $100.9 million in total assets and $95.5 million in total deposits. No bidder was found willing to purchase the bank's assets and to assume the deposits. As a result, to protect the insured depositors, the FDIC created Deposit Insurance National Bank (DINB) of McDonough. This is a new depository institution chartered by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS). It will remain open until January 28, 2011. Unlike normal bank closings, this will result in account holder being encouraged to withdraw their money or they will receive a check and the account will be closed.

10th ranked The Bank of Asheville of Asheville, NC has been known to be struggling for some time. It was a repeat member of this list and had approximately $195.1 million in total assets and $188.3 million in total deposits when it closed. First Bank (1125th) of Troy, NC has agreed to assume all deposits.

Falling just short of the current list, 53rd ranked CommunitySouth Bank & Trust of Easley, SC was the largest bank to fail this week. It had approximately $440.6 million in total assets and $402.4 million in total deposits. They were acquired by CertusBank, N.A. of Charlotte, NC. CertusBank is a newly-chartered bank subsidiary of Blue Ridge Holdings, Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina. Blue Ridge Holdings was set up last fall to take advantage of the current banking crisis. In the application the bank suggested that it could raise up to $1 billion in equity.

In one of the largest failures in recent months, United Western Bank of Denver, CO was closed this week with approximately $2.05 billion in total assets and $1.65 billion in total deposits. United Western was regulated by the Office of Thift Supervision (OTS) and, as such, was not a part of the ranking system. Stable, but not stellar, First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co. (926th) of Raleigh, NC has agreed to assume all deposits.