On Thursday, Ireland's Finance Minister Brian Lenihan released a "Minister's Statement on Banking" announcing new commitments to troubled Irish banks. The statement began: "It is an urgent and immediate priority to reinforce international market confidence in our ability and commitment to restore our banking system to health and to secure the long-term sustainability of our fiscal position." Toward that end, Mr. Lenihan announced increased commitments to banks and building societies.

Yesterday, a federal judge preliminary approved a $125 million cash settlement for former shareholders of New Century Financial Corp. (“New Century”). New Century was the second largest subprime mortgage originator before it filed for bankruptcy in April 2007. In February 2008, Michael J.

Late last week, the Governing Committee of the Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring (FROB) met to discuss the restructuring of Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad de Cordoba (CajaSur).

On Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed First National Bank, headquartered in Rosedale, Mississippi, and appointed the FDIC as receiver.

Friday, the California Department of Financial Institutions closed 1st Pacific Bank of California, headquartered in San Diego, California, and the FDIC was appointed receiver.

Friday, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Banking closed Lincoln Park Savings Bank, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and the FDIC was appointed receiver.

Today, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) announced the close of a Rule 144A sale of $1.8 billion principal amount of notes backed by 103 non-agency residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) from seven failed bank receiverships.

On Friday, the California Department of Financial Institutions closed First Regional Bank, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and the FDIC was named receiver.

On Friday, the OTS closed Peoples First Community Bank, headquartered in Panama City, Florida, and the FDIC was named as receiver.

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.”