A small bank in North Georgia was closed by regulators on Friday and sold to an out-of-state institution.
Branches of Jasper-based Jasper Banking Co. will reopen Saturday under the flag of St. Cloud, Minn.-based Stearns Bank, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Jasper Banking is the ninth bank in Georgia to fail this year, and the 83rd to fail in the state since mid-2008, more than in any other state in that period.
Stearns Bank agreed to acquire all of Jasper's $213.1 million in deposits and the bulk of its $216.7 million in assets. Jasper's failure is expected to cost the FDIC's insurance fund, which protects depositors, $58.1 million.
Jasper is located about 60 miles north of downtown Atlanta.
Jasper Banking Co. was founded in 1945. The bank went on a growth surge in the 2000s, growing even into 2009, well after the start of the Great Recession in late 2007.
The bank, heavily tied to commercial real estate and real estate development loans, tried to pull back but succumbed to borrowers who could no longer pay. The region also has been hard hit by collapses of competing banks and the glut of foreclosed property that has hurt real estate sales and property values.
Chip MacDonald, a banking attorney at Jones Day in Atlanta, said the bank also had a sizable portfolio of loan participations, or pieces of larger loans it bought from other banks.
Stearns Bank has now acquired four Georgia institutions since October 2008.
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