Two financial institutions failed last week, though associated losses will be minimal. In addition, the recent closing of a real estate lender resulted in hundreds of layoffs.
Alabama Trust Bank, N.A., was seized Friday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The regulator noted that unsafe practices caused the bank to experience substantial dissipation of assets and earnings.
“The OCC also found that the bank is likely to incur losses that will deplete its capital, that the bank is critically undercapitalized, and there is no reasonable prospect that the bank will become adequately capitalized without federal assistance,” the OCC’s statement said.
The Sylacauga, Ala., company faced an OCC cease-and-desist order in December 2010, while an OCC remove/prohibition order and OCC restitution order were issued that same month against bank executive Harold A. Dickson Jr. In addition, the bank entered a formal agreement with the OCC in June 2009.
Total assets at the 12-year-old firm stood at $52 million as of March 31 and included $11 million in home loans, $14 million in commercial mortgages and $4 million in construction-and-land-development loans. Deposits totaled $45 million.
Headcount was just 19 employees.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the failed bank.
Southern States Bank assumed all of Alabama Trust Bank’s deposits and acquired all of its assets.
The FDIC projects $9 million in costs to its Deposit Insurance Fund as a result of Alabama Trust Bank’s failure — the 24th FDIC-insured bank to go down so far this year.
Also on Friday, the Wisconsin Office of Credit Unions liquidated Wausau Postal Employees Credit Union. The National Credit Union Administration was appointed liquidating agent.
The NCUA blamed a declining financial condition for the failure.
CoVantage Credit Union agreed to purchase and assume the Wausau, Wis., credit union’s $8 million in assets as well as its liabilities. The financial institution was founded in 1932 and had just 845 members.
Eight credit union failures have been tracked during 2012 by Mortgage Daily.
In a filing this month with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Springleaf Finance Corp. said that it stopped making real estate loans on Jan. 1. As a result, 690 employees were laid off during the first quarter, including 130 at its Evansville, Ind., headquarters.
Employees at Springleaf’s U.K. subsidiary, Ocean Finance and Mortgages Limited, were advised on March 23 of the company’s decision to consolidate that business in a move that resulted in 60 layoffs during April in the United Kingdom.
Springleaf was acquired in 2010 by Fortress Investment Group LLC from American International Group.
In all, Mortgage Daily has covered 43 mortgage-related closings and failures this year.
