Three Bank Failures Raise 2012 Tally to 46

The ""FDIC's"":http://www.fdic.gov/ deposit insurance fund got a little bit lighter Friday as three more banks fell.

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GulfSouth Private Bank of Destin, Florida; Excel Bank of Sedalia, Missouri; and First East Side Savings Bank of Tamarac, Florida, were all liquidated, bringing the national failure tally to 46 so far in 2012 and costing the FDIC's insurance fund a combined total of approximately $86.1 million.

""SmartBank"":http://www.smartbank.net/ of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, will be assuming the deposits and essentially all of the assets of GulfSouth. As of June 30, the failed bank possessed an estimated $151.1 million in deposits and $159.1 in assets. GulfSouth is the sixth Florida bank to have failed this year.

First East Side Savings' deposits and assets were picked up by ""Stearns Bank National Association"":https://www.stearnsbank.com/ of St. Cloud, Minnesota. The seventh bank to fail this year in Florida, First East Side Savings had approximately $65.9 million in deposits and $67.2 million in assets as of June 30.

In a release sent out with First East Side Savings' closing, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said the bank ""had experienced substantial dissipation of assets and earnings due to unsafe and unsound practices.""

""Simmons First National Bank"":http://www.simmonsfirst.com/ of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, assumed all the deposits and purchased essentially all of the assets of Excel Bank. As of the end of the second quarter, Excel had nearly $187.4 million in total deposits and $200.6 million in assets. The bank is the third to fail in Missouri in 2012.

The three collapses bring the national tally to half of 2011's total of 92, according to ""MyBankTracker.com"":http://www.mybanktracker.com/news/failed-bank-list-2011/. Eighty of those failures had occurred by mid-October.