Acworth bank closed by regulators
Regulators on Friday seized NorthWest Bank & Trust, the 11th Georgia lender to fail in 2010.
Acworth-based NorthWest was acquired by State Bank & Trust under a loss-share agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. NorthWest’s branch in Acworth will reopen Saturday under the State Bank flag. A Marietta branch reopens Monday.
State Bank, based in Macon, will assume essentially all of NorthWest’s $167.7 million in assets and $159.4 million in deposits. The FDIC estimates the failure will cost its insurance fund $39.8 million.
In the past 12 months, State Bank has become a go-to player in the disposition of failed institutions.
In July 2009, investors led by veteran banker Joe Evans acquired State Bank and used the Pinehurst-based lender as a platform to buy the failed Security Bank Corp. of Macon. State Bank entered metro Atlanta last December, acquiring Buckhead Community Bank and First Security National Bank from the FDIC.
Counting Security’s six subsidiaries, Evans and his group have now acquired nine of the 41 Georgia banks that have collapsed since August 2008, the most in any state.
NorthWest was founded in March 2004and, like other failed banks, bulked up on real estate lendng. By March 2009, about $21 million, or 13 percent of all loans were either delinquent, in default or foreclosed. In its last earnings report in March, problem loans climbed to $28.2 million and reserves were critically low.
Also Friday, the FDIC said it had placed Community Bank of Pickens County under increased scrutiny. The order, received by the bank June 10, requires the bank to improve management and board oversight, increase cash reserves and charge off impaired loans. At least half of Georgia’s nearly 300 banks have received similar formal enforcement actions.
Although it was lowest number of Georgia banks added to the regulatory action list since August 2009, banking attorney Jim Wheeler, of Morris Manning & Martin, said the state’s industry is still troubled.
“I wouldn’t put too much stock in only one (censure),” he said. “There will be more.”
About the Author
J. Scott Trubey is the senior editor over business, climate and environment coverage at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He previously served as a business reporter for the AJC covering banking, real estate and economic development. He joined the AJC in 2010.
