It looks like a gentle warm-up exercise for the FDIC teams this year. Two weeks off and only a single bank failure to start the new year. Horizon Bank of Bellingham, WA has failed. From the press release:

Horizon Bank, Bellingham, Washington, was closed today by the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, Seattle, Washington, to assume all of the deposits of Horizon Bank.

The 18 branches of Horizon Bank will reopen during their normal business hours beginning tomorrow as branches of Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association. Depositors of Horizon Bank will automatically become depositors of Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association. Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage. Customers should continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice from Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association that it has completed systems changes to allow other Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association branches to process their accounts as well.

18 branches and they’ll be open tomorrow? Not too shabby, guys. $1.3 billion in assets, $1.1 billion in deposits, and an estimated hit to the Deposit Insurance Fund of $539.1 million. Actually, that last part isn’t great. Also, they have one of those annoying loss-share agreements covering $1.0 billion of the assets. I’m a little surprised that only one bank failed after the two week FDIC vacation. I expect more bank failures this year than last. 3 banks a week on average would be near the low end of my expectations.