Soured loans continue to bring down financial institutions in mass. Seven more community banks were shuttered by regulators over the weekend, bringing the[IMAGE]total number of ""FDIC-insured failures"":http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html to 64 for the year. The latest round of closures targeted banks in Puerto Rico, Michigan, Missouri, and Washington, and will cost the FDIC more than $7 billion.
Three banks in Puerto Rico were shut down, representing about a quarter of the banking market share on the island in terms of assets and almost 30 percent of all deposits. According to the _Wall Street Journal_, not since the savings and loan crisis in the 1990s has the FDIC been forced to deal with a banking problem of this scale in a single market.
The largest of the three failures, W Holding Co. Inc.'s ""Westernbank"":http://www.wbpr.com in Mayaguez was acquired by ""Popular Inc."":http://www.bancopopular.com,
[COLUMN_BREAK]the region's largest bank. Westernbank operated 46 branch offices and had assets of $11.94 billion and deposits of $8.62 billion.
""R-G Premier Bank"":http://www.rgpremierbank.com in Hato Rey was absorbed by the ""Bank of Nova Scotia"":http://scotiabank.com/cda/index/0,,LIDen_SID19,00.html in San Juan. R-G had 29 branches, $5.92 billion in assets, and $4.25 billion in total deposits.
San Juan-based ""Eurobank"":http://www.eurobankpr.com was taken over by ""Oriental Bank and Trust"":http://www.orientalonline.com, also in San Juan. Eurobank ran its business out of 22 branches. It had $2.56 billion in assets and $1.97 billion in deposits.
In Port Huron, Michigan, ""CF Bancorp"":http://www.cfsbank.com was closed. ""First Michigan Bank"":http://www.firstmichiganbank.com in Troy stepped in to take over CF Bancorp's 22 branch locations and $1.43 billion in deposits, and purchase nearly all of its $1.65 billion in assets.
""BC National Banks"":http://www.bcnationalbanks.com in Butler, Missouri, also folded. It had four local branches, $67.2 million in assets, and $54.9 million in deposits. ""Community First Bank"":http://www.communityfirstbank.net, also in Butler, was the acquiring institution in an FDIC-assisted transaction.
""Champion Bank"":http://www.championbankstl.com/2722/mirror/ in Creve Coeur, Missouri, was acquired by ""BankLiberty"":www.banklibertykc.com in Liberty, Missouri. Champion Bank operated just a single branch, and had $187.3 million in assets and $153.8 million in deposits.
In Everett, Washington, ""Frontier Bank"":http://www.frontierbank.com was shuttered. ""Union Bank"":http://www.unionbank.com in San Francisco agreed to take over the failed bank's 51 branches, $3.50 billion in total assets, and $3.13 billion in deposits.