Three more banks go under

Regulators closed three more banks, bringing the total for the first half of the year to 40.

The total for all of 2008 was 25.

The North Carolina Commissioner of Banks shut down Cooperative Bank, in Wilmington, N.C., and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver. The FDIC struck a deal with First Bank, of Troy, N.C., to take over the failed institution's 24 branch offices and $774 million in deposits.

First Bank also agreed to buy $942 million of Cooperative Bank's $970 million in assets. Roughly $852 million of those assets are subject to a loss-sharing arrangement with the FDIC, intended to maximize returns on the assets by keeping them in the private sector.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance seized Southern Community Bank, in Fayetteville, Ga. The FDIC, as receiver, arranged for United Community Bank, of Blairsville, Ga., to buy Southern Community's its five branches and $307 million in deposits. United Community paid a 1 percent premium for the deposits.

It also agreed to buy $364 million of the failed bank's $377 million in assets, with $253 million being subject to a loss-sharing deal.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shut down the First National Bank of Anthony, in Anthony, Kan., and appointed the FDIC as receiver. It sold the failed bank's six branches and $142.5 million in deposits to SNB Bank of Kansas, in South Hutchinson, Kan.

SNB Bank of Kansas paid a 0.5 percent premium for the deposits. It also bought nearly all of the bank's $156.9 million in assets, with $130.5 million of that amount subject to loss sharing.

The FDIC estimated that the three latest bank failures would cost its insurance fund around $353.2 million.