Six Banks Fail, 2010 Tally at 15

WASHINGTON (TheStreet) -- Six community banks failed Friday, bringing the 2010 tally of failed U.S. banking institutions to 15.

Friday's failures are expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s insurance fund a total of $1.9 billion.

All six failed institutions had been previously assigned E-minus (Very Weak) financial strength ratings by TheStreet.com Ratings, and all were included in TheStreet.com's list of undercapitalized banks and thrifts.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency shut down First National Bank of Georgia of Carrollton, Ga., a subsidiary of WGNB(WGNB.PK). The FDIC was appointed receiver and sold the failed bank's $758 million in deposits for a 1.25% premium to Community & Southern Bank, also of Carrollton, Ga.

Community & Southern also acquired the failed bank's $833 million in assets, with the FDIC agreeing to share in losses on $607 million and estimating that the cost to its insurance fund would be $260.4 million. First National Bank of Georgia's 11 offices were set to reopen Saturday as Community & Southern branches.

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State regulators took over another Georgia bank, Community Bank and Trust of Cornelia. The FDIC was appointed receiver and arranged for SCBT NA of Orangeburg, S.C. to take over the failed bank's $1.1 billion in deposits and $1.2 billion in assets for no premium. SCBT NA is a subsidiary of SCBT Financial (SCBT).

The FDIC agreed to share in losses on $828 million of the acquired assets, and estimated the failure of Community Bank and Trust would cost the deposit insurance fund $354.5 million.

The failed Bank's 36 branches were scheduled to reopen during normal business hours as SCBT branches, although they will continue to operate under the Community Bank and Trust name.