Regulators Shut Down Bank, Thrift

State regulators closed one bank and one thrift Friday, bringing the total number of U.S. bank and thrift failures during 2009 to 25. The thrift had been an acquisition target of a life insurer that was hoping to qualify for a capital infusion from the federal government via the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), but the deal was never completed.

Please see TheStreet.com's Bank Failure Map for an interactive summary of all previous bank and thrift failures during 2008 and 2009.

The Office of Thrift Supervision closed American Sterling Bank of Sugar Creek, Mo. and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receiver. The FDIC then arranged for Metcalf Bank of Lee's Summit, Mo. to acquire all the deposits of the failed institution and most of its assets.

Meanwhile, The Nevada Financial Institutions Division took over Great Basin Bank of Nevada of Elko, Nev., and the FDIC was appointed receiver. The FDIC entered into an agreement whereby Nevada State Bank (a subsidiary of Zions Bancorporation(ZION Quote)) acquired all of the failed bank's deposits and most of its assets.

American Sterling Bank

American Sterling Bank had total assets of $181 million and total deposits of about $172 million. Metcalf Bank agreed to acquire all of the failed institution's deposits and $174 million of its assets. The FDIC entered into a loss-sharing agreement with Metcalf Bank, agreeing to share in losses on $100 million of the acquired assets.

American Sterling had three branches in Missouri, and one each in Arizona and California. The Missouri branches were set to reopen as Metcalf Bank branches Saturday morning, and the other two branches were to reopen Monday.