Eight Banks Fail; Canada's Second Largest Lender Buys Three Of Them

It's bank failure Friday and today was no disappointment. Today regulators stepped up to the plate with Eight Bank Seizures as the number of failures in 2010 hits 50.

U.S. regulators on Friday seized eight banks with assets totaling more than $6 billion, raising the tally this year to 51 failed banks and adding to the carnage of small institutions that is expected to peak this year.

The eight banks were the most authorities closed since nine were seized last October.

The failed banks were spread across the United States, from Washington state and California to Massachusetts and Florida. Banks have been failing at a consistent pace as the industry still works through large portfolios of troubled mortgages and commercial real estate loans.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said the eight banks that failed were:

• City Bank of Lynnwood, Washington, with assets of about $1.13 billion
• Tamalpais Bank of San Rafael, California, with assets of $628.9 million
• First Federal Bank of North Florida of Palatka, Florida, with assets of $393.9 million
• AmericanFirst Bank, of Clermont, Florida, with assets of $90.5 million
• Riverside National Bank of Florida, with assets of $3.42 billion
• Butler Bank of Lowell, Massachusetts, with assets of $268 million
• Lakeside Community Bank of Sterling Heights, Michigan, with assets of $53 million
• Innovative Bank of Oakland, California, with assets of $284 million.

The recovery of the bank industry is lagging behind the recovery of the overall economy, which is regaining footing after the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair recently said bank failures will likely peak in the third quarter of this year.

Toronto-Dominion Buys Three Failed Banks

Inquiring minds are reading Toronto-Dominion Buys Three Failed Banks as 2010 Toll Hits 50

Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada’s second-largest lender, agreed to buy three Florida-based financial institutions as those and five other failures brought the number of 2010 closures to 50.

“These were all in locations that were in our master plan,” for new branches, Toronto-Dominion Chief Executive Officer Edmund Clark said yesterday in a telephone interview. “It would have taken us five years to have built that many branches, so it just speeds up our development.”

Lenders are collapsing amid losses on residential and commercial real estate loans which pushed the FDIC’s list of “problem” banks to the highest level since 1992 in the fourth quarter. Banks in Michigan, Massachusetts, California and Washington state were also closed yesterday by U.S. and state regulators, who named the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver, according to statements on the agency’s Web site.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said on Feb. 23 that the pace of failures may exceed last year’s total of 140.

State regulators and the FDIC were unable to find a buyer for Lakeside Community Bank, of Sterling Heights, Michigan, which was closed and deposits paid out, the FDIC said.

Toronto-Dominion's Master Plan

Given enough time, this might be a good move by Toronto-Dominion. Certainly it is a far better move that it would have been a year ago, two years ago, and especially three years ago.

I believe Florida real estate will bottom first as it was ground zero along with Nevada in plunging. However, I do not know exactly what assets Toronto-Dominion bought, or what the deal was.

Assuming Toronto-Dominion did its homework, these purchases might work out very well. That said, better bargains are likely coming up. I sense a massive wave of bank failures is coming up.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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