Two Banks, One Thrift Fail Friday

WASHINGTON (TheStreet) - State and federal regulators closed two banks and one thrift Friday, bringing the total number of U.S. bank and thrift failures this year to 123.

The Office of Thrift Supervision closed Century Bank FSB of Sarasota, Fla., while Florida regulators shut down Orion Bank of Naples, Fla., and the Comptroller of the Currency took over Pacific Coast National Bank of San Clemente, Calif.

The OTS appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receiver for Century Bank FSB. The FDIC arranged for IBERIABANK of Lafayette, La. to assume all of the failed thrift's deposits and $706 million of its $728 million in assets, with the FDIC retaining the rest for later disposition. IBERIABANK is a subsidiary of IBERIABANK Corp.(IBKC Quote).

While third-quarter financial information was not publicly available for Century Bank FSB, the thrift was included in TheStreet.com's list of undercapitalized banks and thrifts as of June 30. Out of that list of 116 institutions, 32 have already failed.

Century Bank FSB's capital base was eroding from losses on nonperforming loans across its diversified mortgage portfolio.

The FDIC agreed to share in losses on $656 million of the assets acquired by IBERIABANK and estimated the cost to its insurance fund would be $344 million. Century Bank's 11 offices were set to reopen during their normal business hours as branches of IBERIABANK.

IBERIABANK was also the acquirer of Orion Bank of Naples, Fla. IBERIABANK agreed to purchase all of Orion's deposits and $2.4 billion of its $2.7 billion in assets. The FDIC agreed to share in losses on $1.9 billion of the acquired assets.

In a press release, IBERIABANK termed its two Florida acquisitions "opportunistic." Friday's acquisitions brought to four the number of failed institutions acquired by IBERIABANK Corp. during the current crisis, including CapitalSouth Bank of Birmingham, Ala., which failed on Aug. 21, and ANB Financial of Bentonville, Ark., which had $2.1 billion in total assets when it failed in May 2008.

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