Reply #1: Fifth Bank of 2010 Fails in Florida

[OhioChick]

Source: Wall Street Journal

JANUARY 22, 2010, 7:36 P.M. ET

Regulators seized a Miami bank on Friday and sold it to an investment group that received a so-called shelf charter last year to acquire failed financial institutions.

The closing of Premier American Bank brings the total number of failures this year to five. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimated that Premier American's closing will cost the agency's cash-strapped deposit-insurance fund a total of $85 million.

The FDIC sold Premier American's four branches, $326 million in deposits and some of its assets to a subsidiary of Naples, Fla.-based Bond Street Holdings LLC, the group granted a preliminary "shelf charter" in October 2009 to establish a new national bank.

Regulators have been encouraging investors to apply for such charters as a way of expanding the pool of potential buyers, and this is the first time a group was successful in using the tool to pick up a failed institution, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Bond Street Holdings was allowed to keep Premier American's name, and it will reopen on Monday as Premier American Bank NA.

The FDIC and the new owner also agreed to share losses on $300 million of the failed bank's assets.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703822404575019681776963858.html?mod=googlenews_wsj