FDIC closes small bank in Missouri

[July 14, 2012]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal regulators have closed a small bank in Missouri, bringing the number of U.S. banks that have failed so far this year to 33.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it seized Glasgow Savings Bank in Glasgow.

The bank had one branch and about $24.8 million in assets and $24.2 million in deposits as of March 31.

Regional Missouri Bank, in Marceline, Mo., agreed to assume all of Glasgow Savings' deposits and to purchase essentially all of its assets.

The FDIC estimates that the failure of Glasgow Savings will cost the insurance fund $100,000.

The bank is the first FDIC-insured institution in Missouri to fail this year.

The pace of bank closures has 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. By this time last year, 51 banks had failed.

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.

[Associated Press]

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