Chicago Lender Shuttered by Regulators as Failed-Bank Tally Hits 109

After four weekends characterized by bank failures in mass, regulators shut down only one financial institution Friday â€" ""Ravenswood Bank"":http://www.ravenswoodbank.com in Chicago. This latest closing brings the 2010 ""failed-bank tally"":http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html to 109.

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The pace of closings this year is well ahead of the number of shut-downs seen this time last year â€" 72. The FDIC has said it doesn't expect bank closings to peak until the latter part of 2010.

Ravenswood Bank was closed down by the state of Illinois' Division of Banking, which appointed the FDIC as receiver. Ravenswood operated two branch offices, with $269.5 million in deposits, and assets of $264.6 million. According

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to the financial site ""TheStreet.com"":http://www.thestreet.com, by June 30, Ravenswood Bank's capital had been completely wiped out by a $14.4 million second-quarter net loss.

The FDIC brokered a deal with ""Northbrook Bank and Trust Company"":http://www.northbrookbank.com in Northbrook, Illinois to take over the failed Ravenswood Bank. Northbrook paid a premium of 0.90 percent for the deposits, and agreed to purchase all the assets. The FDIC agreed to cover 80 percent of the losses on $161.3 million of the acquired assets.

Northbrook is a subsidiary of ""Wintrust Financial Corporation"":http://www.wintrust.com. Ravenswood was the third busted area bank that Wintrust has acquired this year. ""On April 23, it picked up"":http://dsnews.comarticles/seven-illinois-banks-shut-down-by-regulators-2010-04-26 the assets and deposits of Lincoln Park Savings Bank, which was also added to the Northbrook system. On that same day, Wintrust's Wheaton Bank and Trust also bought the failed Wheatland Bank of Naperville, Illinois.

The nation's latest bank failure, Ravenswood, is expected to cost the FDIC's deposit insurance fund $68.1 million. Illinois has been a hot spot for bank closings this year. So far in 2010, 13 financial institutions in the state have folded.

That count puts Illinois second behind only the state of Florida for the most bank failures this year. Florida has had 20 of its locally based lending institutions shuttered by regulators since the start of 2010.