This is going to be a busy year for the FDIC. Recall that they budgeted for additional closure teams, so they’re well aware of this. Tonight, 5 banks were added to the FDIC Failed Bank List:

1. Premier American Bank, Miami, FL - $326.3 million in total deposits and an estimated hit to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) of $85 million. This one must have been painful for the FDIC, because they talked some group of investors into forming a bank holding company just to take over this bank. As part of the negotiations, they offered to share in the losses with Premier American Bank, N.A. on $300 million of Premier American Bank’s assets. At least the new guys, a subsidiary of Bond Street Holdings, had an easy time coming up with a name.

2. Leeton, Leeton, MO - $20.4 million in total deposits and an estimated hit to the DIF of $8.1 million.

3. Charter Bank, Santa Fe, NM - $851.5 million in total deposits and an estimated hit to the DIF of $201.9 million. This also required convincing a group of investors, Beal Financial Corporation, to charter a new bank, conveniently named Charter Bank. They also required a loss-share agreement on $805.5 million of Charter Bank’s assets.

4. Evergreen Bank, Seattle, WA - Total deposits of $439.4 million and an estimated hit to the DIF of $64.2 million. This involved a loss-share agreement, but they actually found an existing bank willing to participate. The FDIC and Umpqua Bank (Roseburg, Oregon) entered into a loss-share transaction on $379.5 million of Evergreen Bank’s assets.

5. Columbia River Bank, The Dalles, OR - Total deposits of $1.0 billion and an estimated hit to the DIF of $172.5 million. The FDIC and Columbia State Bank (Tacoma, Washington) entered into a loss-share transaction on $697.4 million of Columbia River Bank’s assets.

Needing to charter a new bank in order to take over a failed bank isn’t new. Some investors banded together to form IBERIABANK (or something similar) last year just for that purpose. It is unusual, though. It is also somewhat alarming, as it hints that the current crop of banks aren’t in a good position to take over operations for these failed banks. The FDIC approaches buyers, only providing limited information at first. It takes a considerable amount of effort (I watched a documentary). Both the effort and the need for some secrecy limit the number of buyers the FDIC contacts. Since they ostensibly know the health of other banks, they approach the healthiest/best fit banks. So either the healthiest/best fit banks don’t want to expand even with FDIC guarantees and loss-share agreements, or the list of potential candidates is too short. Spooky.