Regulators seize two more banks

It took less than four months for the number of bank failures in 2009 to match the total for all of 2008.

Regulators shut down two more banks on Friday, one in Nevada and one in Missouri. The Nevada Financial Insitutions Division seized Great Basin Bank, of Elko, Nev., and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver.

The FDIC arranged for Nevada State Bank, of Las Vegas, to take over all Great Basin's $221.4 million in deposits, as well as its five branch offices. Nevada State Bank bought $252.3 million of the failed bank's $270.9 million in assets.

It entered into a loss-sharing agreement with the FDIC on $143.4 million of those assets, meaning the agency will take much of the financial hit if their values deteriorate.

The Office of Thrift Supervision closed American Sterling Bank, of Sugar Creek, Mo., and named the FDIC as receiver. It struck a deal with Metcalf Bank, of Lee's Summit, Mo., for all of the failed bank's $171.9 million in deposits and most of its $181 million in assets.

Metcalf Bank took over American Sterling's offices in Missouri , California and Arizona. It entered into a loss-sharing agreement with the FDIC on $100 million of the $173.6 million in assets it acquired.

The seizure thwarted an insurance company's plan to tap into the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program by acquiring American Sterling.

The Phoenix Cos. stuck a deal in January to buy the bank for $180 million, but the deal was contingent on American Sterling being approved for an injection of capital from the government.

The Office of Thrift Supervision had ordered American Sterling to find a buyer, raise additional capital or cease operations.

The FDIC said the two bank closings would cost its insurance fund around $84 million.

Nevada State Bank is a unit of Zions Bancorp, which got $1.4 billion in taxpayer capital through TARP. Another subsidiary of Zions took over a failed California bank in February.

Of the 25 banks that have been shut down by regulators this year, 13 have been absorbed by banks whose own finances were bolstered with money from the federal government.