U.S. Banks in Four States Closed, Failure Count Climbs to 68

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regulators closed four banks holding less than $740 million in total assets as this year’s failures climbed to 68.

Lenders in Arizona, California, Minnesota and Florida were closed by regulators and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver, according to statements on the agency’s website. The failures cost the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund $213.7 million, a fraction of last week’s $7.3 billion total cost. City National Corp., the Los Angeles-based lender with $20.1 billion in assets, purchased one of the banks.

“City National has been serving San Diego for more than 30 years,” Chief Executive Officer Russell Goldsmith said in a statement. “This acquisition underscores our expanding commitment to the community.”

U.S. banks are collapsing amid losses on residential and commercial real estate loans, and the FDIC’s list of “problem” lenders is the longest since 1992, at 702. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has said she expects failures to slow but still exceed last year’s total of 140.

City National paid a premium of 1.62 percent to acquire the $291.2 million in deposits at 1st Pacific Bank of California, based in San Diego. City National is looking to expand in Southern California and picked up Imperial Capital Bank in December.

Banks paid premiums to acquire the deposits at Mesa-based Towne Bank of Arizona and Access Bank of Champlin, Minnesota, the FDIC said.

Bank of Bonifay

For the one deal in which the FDIC wasn’t paid a premium, the agency kept the majority of the assets at Florida-based Bank of Bonifay for later sale. The agency held onto $164.8 million of the $242.9 million in total assets. First Federal Bank of Florida, in Lake City, acquired the deposits and some assets.

The FDIC announced on May 4 that it sold a 40 percent stake in a company holding assets of Atlanta’s failed Silverton Bank to Square Mile Capital LLC. The private-equity firm bought mainly performing hospitality loans and loan participations with an unpaid principal balance of about $421 million, the FDIC said in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dakin Campbell in San Francisco at dcampbell27@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 8, 2010 00:00 EDT