Loganville-based Community Bank fails

State and federal regulators seized a Loganville-based bank Friday — making it the third Georgia-based financial institution to fail this year and 20th nationwide amid the economic downslide.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said The Community Bank’s total deposits of $611.4 million will be acquired by the Bank of Essex in Tappahannock, Va. Bank of Essex paid a $3.2 million premium for those deposits, and the FDIC predicted the seizure would cost the Deposit Insurance Fund between $200 million and $240 million.

Bank of Essex also purchased $84.4 million of the $681 million in total assets The Community Bank had on its books. The FDIC will keep the remaining assets to dispose of later.

The Community Bank’s four branches will reopen Monday as the Bank of Essex, and the FDIC said bank depositors can continue to access their funds Saturday and Sunday via ATMs or writing checks. Their deposits remain fully insured for up to $250,000.

Community Bank recently ranked second-highest on a list of Georgia banks with a high Texas ratio, a statistic that some industry experts use to gauge risk that the institutions will run into financial trouble. Integrity Bank and Alpha Bank & Trust, two Alpharetta banks that failed in the last few months, also had high Texas ratios. The statistic measures the level of problem loans compared to the amount of capital and reserves available to absorb losses.

— Russell Grantham contributed to this article.