Yesterday, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair, the keynote speaker at the Institute of International Bankers Cross-Border Insolvency Issues Conference in New York, stressed the need to end the “too big to fail” mentality by “eliminating the belief that the government will always support large, interconnected financial firms.” Chairman Bair noted that in order to do so, “we need an effective mechanism to close large, financial intermediaries when they get into trouble.”
Today, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation closed Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, headquartered in Fort Meyers, Florida, and the FDIC was appointed as receiver. As receiver, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Central Bank, headquartered in Stillwater, Minnesota, to assume all of the deposits of Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida.
CIT Group Inc.
On Friday, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation - Division of Banking closed Benchmark Bank, headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, and the FDIC was named as receiver.
On Friday, AmTrust Bank, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, was closed by the OTS and the FDIC was named as receiver. As receiver, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with New York Community Bank, headquartered in Westbury, New York, to assume the deposits of AmTrust Bank. AmTrust did not pay a premium to assume the deposits.
Yesterday, Treasury released its most recent completed transactions report for the period ending December 10, 2009.
CIT Group Inc.
On Friday, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed RockBridge Commercial Bank, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and the FDIC was named as receiver.
On Friday, the OTS closed Peoples First Community Bank, headquartered in Panama City, Florida, and the FDIC was named as receiver.
On Friday, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation – Division of Banking closed Independent Bankers’ Bank, headquartered in Springfield, Illinois, and theFDIC was named as receiver. As receiver, the FDIC created Independent Bankers’ Bank Bridge Bank, National Association to take over the operations of the failed bank.