Regulators yesterday shuttered banks in Florida, Illinois, Maryland, and Utah, boosting to 26 the number of US bank failures so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults. The pace of bank seizures this year is likely to accelerate , FDIC officials have said, as the number of banks on its confidential "problem" list jumped from 552 to 702 in the fourth quarter.
The FDIC took over Sun American Bank, based in Boca Raton, Fla., Bank of Illinois of Normal, Ill., Waterfield Bank in Germantown, Md., and Centennial Bank in Ogden, Utah. The 140 bank failures last year were the highest annual tally since 1992, at the height of the savings and loan crisis. They cost the insurance fund more than $30 billion. There were 25 bank failures in 2008 and just three in 2007. (More FDIC stories.)