Six more banks out of business in US

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155983.html


Regulators in the United States have closed six more banks in four different states, raising the bank failure toll this year to 157.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shut down the six banks with a total of $1.23 billion in assets, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

The United Americas Bank, Appalachian Community Bank and Chestatee State Bank in Georgia, the First Southern Bank in Arkansas, Community National Bank in Minnesota, and Florida's Bank of Miami have been seized in the latest closures.

Florida has been hit the hardest by bank failures among other states, losing 29 lenders this year.

The FDIC says that the total assets of this year's failures would likely be lower even though the number of closures has exceeded that of last year.

The closures have taken place against the backdrop of a deepening financial crisis in the United States and the lenders' overflow of real estate loans.

Washington Mutual, which had $307 billion in assets when it was seized in September 2008, remains the largest bank to fail during the financial crisis.

Experts believe that more than 500 banks may fail before the economic crisis comes to a close.

The FDIC released its latest quarterly report on the state of the banking industry in November. The corporation says it expects bank closures to peak this year after 140 closures in 2009.