Regulators seize another bank

Regulators shut down an Oregon bank on Friday, marking the six straight week that a failing bank has been taken over.

The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services closed Silver Falls Bank, of Silverton, Ore. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. arranged for Citizens Bank, of Corvallis, Ore., to take over Silver Falls' branches and deposits.

As of Feb. 9, Silver Falls had $131.4 million in assets and $116.3 million in deposits.

Silver Falls was the 14^th U.S. bank to fail in 2009. The total for all of last year was 25.

Citizens Bank bought all of Silver Falls' deposits, as well as roughly $13 million in assets.

The FDIC estimated that the bank failure would cost its deposit insurance fund about $50 million. It said selling Silver Falls' deposits to Citizens Bank was the least costly resolution.

Of the 14 banks that have been closed by regulators since Jan. 1, nine were absorbed by financial institutions that got taxpayer capital through the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Citizens Bank did not apply for any of the money available through that $700 billion program, which was approved by Congress in October. The bank says its conservative approach to lending has largely insulated it from the problems other institutions are facing.