Year’s Failed-Bank Tally Rises to 92 with Closings in Arizona and Florida

Following a month without a single bank failure, state and federal regulators stepped in over the weekend to seize community-based lenders in Arizona and Florida after losses pushed the institutions' capital levels below acceptable thresholds.

This latest pair of closings brings the ""FDIC's tally of failed banks"":http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/banklist.html for the 2011 calendar year to 92. Officials with the FDIC have said for some time that institutional failures stemming from the real estate downturn and economic[IMAGE] [COLUMN_BREAK]

recession have peaked and are now trending lower. The 92 failures as of mid-December this year is indeed well below the 157 that became insolvent in 2010 and 140 in 2009.

""Western National Bank"":http://www.smbanc.com/ based out of Phoenix was closed late Friday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which appointed the FDIC as receiver. Western National operated three branch locations, with $144.5 million in deposits and assets totaling $162.9 million.

The FDIC brokered a deal with ""Washington Federal"":http://www.washingtonfederal.com, headquartered in Seattle, to assume all of the deposits of Western National Bank and purchase all of its assets. The FDIC says the Arizona bank's failure will cost its insurance fund an estimated $37.6 million.

In Crestview, Florida, it was ""Premier Community Bank of the Emerald Coast"":http://premiercbank.com/ that found regulators at its doors Friday evening. Premier Community Bank had two branches, $112.1 million in deposits, and $126.0 million in assets.

""Summit Bank, N.A."":http://www.summitbankna.com in Panama City, Florida, agreed to step in and take over the failed institution, assuming all deposits and purchasing all of its assets. Premier Community Bank's closing is expected to cost the FDIC $31.2 million.