Source:  MarketWatch

Federal regulators closed three banks in a single day Friday, as the ongoing credit crisis showed no signs of abating.

Utah’s MagnetBank became the fourth bank failure of the year, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was forced to directly refund depositors after being unable to find another institution willing to take over its operations.

That marked the first time the FDIC has been unable to find an acquirer for a failed bank in nearly five years, according to FDIC spokesman David Barr. “This bank did not have an attractive franchise value, and not many retail deposits or core deposits,” Barr said. The FDIC had conducted an extensive marketing process for the bank’s assets, he said.

Salt Lake City-based MagnetBank had total assets of $292.9 million as of Dec. 2, and $282.8 million in total deposits. “It is estimated that the bank did not have any uninsured funds,” the FDIC said in a statement.
The FDIC later said it has also closed Maryland-based Suburban Federal Savings Bank, and Florida’s Ocala National Bank.

Suburban Federal had total assets of roughly $360 million as of Sep. 30, and total deposits of $302 million, the FDIC said in a statement. Tappahannock, Va.-based Bank of Essex agreed to assume all of the failed bank’s deposits, the FDIC said.

Ocala National had $223.5 million in total assets as of Dec. 31, and $205.2 million in total deposits, the FDIC said. Winter Haven, Fla.-based CenterState Bank has agreed to assume all of the failed bank’s deposits.
The closures mark the fourth, fifth and sixth bank failures of 2009, bringing the total to 31 since the start of the credit crisis.

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