Failed Bank Number Reaches 24 in 2012

Regulators closed one bank last week, taking the year's failed bank total to 24, according to figures from Charlottesville, Va.-based SNL Financial. By comparison, regulators had closed 43 banks through the end of May 20, 2011.

Alabama Trust Bank, which was established in 2000, was the latest bank to be closed by federal regulators. The bank had total assets of $51.6 million. The 24 banks that have failed so far in 2012 had asset sizes between $48 and $818 million.

According to SNL, the median cost to the FDIC as a percentage of the failed banks' assets was 22 percent in 2012 for the 24 failures. The median cost in 2011 was 23 percent, the same as in 2010 but lower than the 29 percent median cost in 2009.

As of May 18, the FDIC entered loss-share agreements with the buyers of nine of the 24 banks closed in 2012. In 2011, the FDIC entered loss-share agreements with the buyers of 58 of the 92 closed banks. In 2010, the FDIC entered loss-share agreements with the buyers of 130 of the 157 failed banks.

In total, federal regulators closed 92 banks throughout 2011. In 2010, there were 157 bank closures, and 140 banks were shuttered in 2009.

[Related: Bank Failures Down in 2011 From Previous Year]

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio