PNC Picks Up Failed Dwelling House

PITTSBURGH (TheStreet) -- Dwelling House Savings and Loan, which saw most of its capital get wiped out as a result of a large fraud related to electronic fund transfers, was seized by regulators late Friday and its assets and sole branch were sold to PNC Financial Services (PNC).

The FDIC was appointed receiver, and sold all of the thrift's deposits and its sole office to PNC Bank NA, a subsidiary of PNC Financial Services. Dwelling House's office was scheduled to reopen Monday as a branch of PNC.

Dwelling House had $13 million in total assets. PNC acquired $3 million in assets, with the FDIC retaining the rest for later disposition. The FDIC estimated the cost to its insurance fund would be $6.8 million.

With net losses of $2.4 million in the fourth quarter and $1.8 million in the first quarter, the institution was left with negative levels of capital and was unable to raise new capital in time to avoid being closed by regulators.

TheStreet.com had assigned Dwelling House Savings and Loan an E-minus (very weak) financial strength rating, which was a downgrade from E the previous quarter.

In addition to PNC, large bank holding companies that have acquired failed institutions during 2008 and 2009 include BB&T (BBT), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), SunTrust Banks (STI), Regions Financial (RF), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Zions Bancorp (ZION).

The failure of Dwelling House brought the total number of failed banks and thrifts for 2009 to 73.

All previous bank failures since the beginning of 2008 are detailed on TheStreet.com's interactive Bank Failure Map.

Georgia continues to lead all states with 21 bank or thrift failures during 2008 and 2009, followed by Illinois with 14 failures, California with 13, and then Florida with eight and NevadaNevada with four failures.