MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US regulators close more banks with failures so far this year totalling 73

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp has closes more than 390 banks since 2008.

United States regulators on Friday closed banks in Virginia and California, lifting to 73 the number of US bank failures this year. The number of closures has dropped significantly this year as banks have worked their way through the bad debt accumulated in the recession. By this time last year, regulators had shuttered 127 banks.

Officials closed Norfolk, Virginia-based Bank of the Commonwealth and Nevada City, California’s Citizens Bank of Northern California, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said on its website. The two failures drained the deposit- insurance fund of 305.5 million dollars.

Banks are closing under stress from commercial real estate loans, tied to property values that fell about 49% from the October 2007 peak through April, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Regulators have shuttered more than 390 lenders since the start of 2008, FDIC data show.

Southern Bank & Trust Co. of Mount Olive, North Carolina, picked up the Virginia lender’s almost 902 million dollars in deposits and about 924 million in assets, the FDIC said. Southern Bank added 21 branches in what was state’s second failure this year.

Chico, California-based Tri Counties Bank added seven branches, almost 290 million dollars in assets and about 253 million in deposits from Citizens Bank, the FDIC said. Four banks have been closed in California this year.