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Regulators Close Down Lenders in Illinois and Washington

This year's ""failed-bank tally"":http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html rose to 63 over the weekend, as state and federal regulators seized control of two more community-based lenders in Illinois and Washington state.
[IMAGE] Though still elevated, the number of bank closings has tapered off considerably from earlier in the crisis. At this time last year, the count of FDIC-insured institutional failures stood at 109 for the 2010 calendar year.

The largest of the two failures this weekend was ""Bank of Whitman"":http://www.bankofwhitman.com/ in Colfax, Washington. It operated 12 branch

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locations, with $515.7 million in deposits and $548.6 million in total assets.

Tacoma, Washington's ""Columbia State Bank"":http://www.columbiabank.com agreed to assume all of the failed bank's deposits but consented to purchase only $314.4 million of its assets. The FDIC says it will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

The federal agency estimates that Bank of Whitman's closing will cost its Deposit Insurance Fund $134.8 million. This is the third bank headquartered in the state of Washington to go under this year.

""Bank of Shorewood"":http://www.bankofshorewood.com/ in Shorewood, Illinois, was also shut down. It had three branches, $104.0 million in deposits, and $110.7 million in assets.

The FDIC brokered a deal with ""Heartland Bank and Trust Company"":http://www.hbtbank.com in Bloomington, Illinois, to take over the failed lender's operations and deposits, and buy up all of its loans and assets.

Bank of Shorewood's closing will cost the FDIC an estimated $25.6 million. It's the sixth federally insured lender in Illinois to close its doors this year.