Sheila Bair

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says five more U.S. banks failed last week, including United Commercial Bank, a San Francisco-based institution with assets totaling more than $11 billion. The 2009 toll has now risen to 120, with banks continuing to go under because of the weight of bad real estate loans. East West Bank, Pasadena, California, agreed to assume all of the deposits of United Commercial Bank. This agreement included all U.S. branches of United Commercial Bank, the Hong Kong branch of United Commercial Bank, and the subsidiary of United Commercial Bank headquartered in Shanghai, China, United Commercial Bank, FDIC said. As of October ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - United Commercial Bank, a big San Francisco bank with branches in China, was closed by state regulators on Friday and its banking operations were acquired by East West Bancorp Inc, also active in both nations. East West said the transaction made it the second-largest independent bank in California. Based in Pasadena, East West has 137 U.S. branches, including offices in New York, Atlanta, Boston and Seattle, and four in China. United Commercial Bank, with assets of $11.2 billion, was the 120th U.S. bank to fail this year. Regulators closed four other banks on Friday, in Georgia, Michigan, Missouri and Minnesota. Failures ... Read Full Story

Regulators on Friday shut United Security Bank, a small bank in Georgia, bringing the number of bank failures this year to 116 amid the struggling economy and a cascade of defaults on loans. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over United Security Bank, based in Sparta, Ga., with $157 million in assets and $150 million in deposits and two branches. Ameris Bank, based in Moultrie, Ga., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of the failed bank. The failure of United Security Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $58 million. With United Security, 21 Georgia banks have failed ... Read Full Story

Yesterday’s five bank failures bring the number of banks to fail during this economic storm to 120. Should these bank failures come as a surprise? No, some were already slapped with a Cease and Desist order prior to the FDIC shutting them down. The FDIC never announces to anyone, not even to the bank being closed that they will be seized ahead of time. When the FDIC shows up at the bank it is most often done on a Friday after the bank has said goodnight to their last customer for the day. As the bank is about to lock the doors for the ... Read Full Story

The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday said Congress needs to provide regulators greater tools to control the risky financial behavior that helped trigger the recession and to unwind major firms on the verge of collapse. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said she supports such a winding-down process for financial institutions other than banks. But she does have reservations with a proposal now before the House, which would cover the costs for the government of dissolving troubled companies with fees charged to businesses after the firms' meltdown occurred. Bair says that fund should be created before a financial institution is engulfed in ... Read Full Story