Regulators seize three more banks

Regulators seized three more banks on Friday, closing one and selling the deposits and assets of the other two to new operators.

Twenty banks have now failed since the start of the year, compared to 25 for all of 2008.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shut down Teambank N.A., of Paola, Kan., and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver. It arranged for Great Southern Bancorp Inc., of Springfield, Mo., to take over most of the bank's business.

Teambank had $669.8 million in assets and $492.8 million in deposits.

Teambank's 17 branches will reopen Saturday as Great Southern branches. Great Southern will buy $656.5 million of the failed bank's assets, at a discount of $100 million. It also will buy $474 million of the deposits, at a premium of 1 percent.

The Comptroller of the Currency also closed Colorado National Bank, in Colorado Springs, Colo.  The FDIC arranged for Herring Bank, of Amarillo, Texas, to assume its deposits. Colorado National had $123.5 million in assets and $82.7 million in deposits.

Herring Bank took over Colorado National's four branches, and agreed to buy $117.3 million of its assets at a discount of $4.2 million. It bought the bank's deposits at a discount of 1.27 percent.

Teambank and Colorado National were subsidiaries of Team Financial Inc., a publicly traded company with headquarters in Paola. Team Financial lost $23.5 million for the first nine months of 2008, compared with a profit of $3.49 million in the same period of 2007.

The company cited increased loan loss provisions, a drop in the value of its investment securities and other factors for the sharp reversal.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed FirstCity Bank of Stockbridge, Ga. The FDIC, as receiver, did not find a buyer for the operation, so it will pay out the insured deposits to customers. FirstCity had $297 million in assets and $278 million in deposits.

The FDIC gave Great Southern and Herring Bank added incentives to buy the failed banks in Kansas and Colorado. It agreedto a 80/20 loss-sharing arrangement with Great Southern on $450 million of Townbank's assets. It made the same deal with Herring Bank on $62 million of Colorado National's assets.

Great Southern previously got $58 million in taxpayer capital through the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Of the 20 banks that have been shut down by regulators this year, 11 were absorbed by banks whose finances were bolstered by TARP money.