Three bank failures Friday are expected to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation more than $2 billion. One of the banks had more than $3 billion in construction-and-land-development loans. Two wholesale lenders recently called it quits, including a Goldman Sachs & Co. subsidiary.
Chicago’s Corus Bank, N.A., was closed Friday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which noted in a news release that “the bank had experienced substantial dissipation of assets and earnings due to unsafe and unsound practices.” The 95-year-old institution had 517 employees as of June’s end. Parent Corus Bankshares Inc. entered a formal agreement in February with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
The FDIC was named receiver, as is the case with all federally insured bank failures, and MB Financial Bank, N.A., assumed all of the $7 billion in deposits as of June 30 for an 0.2 percent premium. MB also acquired $3 billion of the failed bank’s $7 billion in assets, which included $14 million in home loans, $393 million in commercial mortgages and $3.249 billion in construction-and-land-development loans.
FDIC losses from the collapse of Corus are pegged at $1.7 billion.
Further north, in Woodbury, Minn., the Minnesota Department of Commerce seized Brickwell Community Bank. CorTrust Bank N.A., acquired Brickwell’s deposits of $63 million as of July 24 for an 0.10 percent premium. CorTrust also acquired all of the failed firm’s $72 million in assets with the FDIC participating in losses on $65 million of the assets — which included $11 million in residential loans, $33 million in commercial mortgages and $5 million in construction-and-land-development financings.
The collapse of five-year-old Brickwell — which had 13 employees and faced an FDIC cease-and-desist order in March — is projected to cost the Deposit Insurance Fund $22 million.
Last to go Friday was Venture Bank in Lacy, Wash, which was shut down by the Washington Department of Financial Institutions because of inadequate capital and “severe” loan losses. First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co. assumed all of Venture’s $903 million in deposits as of July 28 from the FDIC — which issued a prompt corrective action on Feb. 13 against the failed institutioin.
First-Citizens also acquired $874 million of the failed bank’s $970 million in assets, with the FDIC sharing in losses on $715 million in assets and projecting its own losses of $298 million. Assets included $59 million in one- to four-unit mortgages, $260 million in commercial mortgages and $302 million in construction-and-land-development loans.
Venture, founded in 1979, was the 92nd FDIC-insured bank failure so far this year. It employed 200 people as of June 30.
First National Bank of the South issued a Sept. 2 letter to its small bank customers indicating that it “made a strategic decision to withdraw from the wholesale mortgage business,” according to a copy of the letter published by the Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter. Monthly wholesale originations reportedly averaged $35 million.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Senderra Funding LLC exited wholesale lending, the Implode-O-Meter indicated. Senderra was founded by Charles “Brad” Bradley — who also founded and eventually sold EquiFirst Inc.
Senderra was acquired by Goldman Sachs & Co. subsidiary Avelo Mortgage LLC in February 2007.
So far this year, 152 mortgage-related closings have been tracked by MortgageDaily.com.
