New Bank Failures: Week of April 27

New bank failures for the week of April 27 include Georgia's American Southern Bank, First Bank of Idaho, First Bank of Beverly Hills and Michigan Heritage Bank bringing the total number of institutions shuttered by regulators this year to 29.

All 54 bank failures since the beginning of 2008 are detailed on TheStreet.com's interactive bank failure map:

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Bank of North Georgia, a subsidiary of Synovus Financial (SNV), acquired all of American Southern's retail deposits. US Bancorp (USB) bought First Bank of Idaho's deposits. Level One Bank, a subsidiary of Michigan Heritage Bancorp (MHBC), bought all of Michigan Heritage Bank's retail deposits.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. could not line up a buyer for First Bank of Beverly Hills and mailed checks to all retail depositors, covering all but an estimated $179,000 in uninsured deposits. The FDIC estimated the cost to its insurance fund for the four failures would be $698 million.

The FDIC's estimated total cost to its deposit insurance fund for the bank failures during the first quarter of 2009 was $2.3 billion

American Southern Bank was the fifth Georgia bank to fail during 2009 and the 10th since the beginning of 2008, the most of any state. Large southern banks like SunTrust (STI), Regions Financial (RF) and BB&T (BBT) have acquired some of the failed institutions' assets.

California has experienced the second most failures of any state, with nine, and Florida, Illinois and Nevada, each of which has had four bank or thrift failures, are tied for third.

Many of the failed institutions, including First Bank of Beverly Hills and Michigan Heritage, were included in TheStreet.com's list of undercapitalized banks and thrifts, which was recently updated.

TheStreet.com Ratings, recently cited for Best Stock Selection from October 2007 through February 2009 , is an independent research provider that combines fundamental and technical analysis to offer investors tremendous value in volatile times. It provides independent and very conservative financial strength ratings on each of the nation's 8,500 banks and savings and loans, which are available at no charge on the Banks & Thrifts Screener. To see how your portfolio can use this and other research, click here now!

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