WASHINGTON — Bank closings for the year hit 100 on Friday, when regulators shut down Partners Bank in Naples, Fla.
Financial institutions nationwide have collapsed amid soured real estate loans and the recession.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Partners Bank, which had $68.7 million in assets and $63.4 million in deposits. Stonegate Bank, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., agreed to buy its deposits and assets.
The 100 failures are the most in a year since 1992 — the height of the savings-and-loan crisis when 120 institutions collapsed.
They have cost the FDIC fund about $25 billion so far this year, and hundreds more bank failures are expected to raise the cost to about $100 billion through 2013.
Depositors’ money is not in danger. The FDIC is backed by the government, and deposits are guaranteed up to $250,000 per account. But the deposit-insurance fund has fallen into the red.
This year’s 100 bank failures compare with 25 last year and three in 2007. The 100 failures may not fully reflect the depth of banks’ travails. Many more — perhaps hundreds — are so weak they could have been shut down already, experts say. Regulators have threatened to close them unless they shore up their balance sheets, but the recession has made it difficult to raise capital or sell assets.
