A bank in the north Georgia town of Clayton was closed by regulators Friday, the 14th failure of a Georgia-based bank this year and the 65th since the 2008 financial crisis.
Mountain Heritage Bank was sold to First American Bank and Trust Co. in Athens, the FDIC said. The bank, founded in 2003, had $103.7 million in assets and $89.6 million in deposits at two branches. The failure is estimated to cost the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund $41.1 million.
In 2009, after receiving cease-and-desist orders by regulators that June, Mountain Heritage Bank president Jim Wallis told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he was trying to raise $2 million and shrink the bank’s balance sheet. As with nearly every failed bank, Mountain Heritage bet heavily on real estate.
Most of Mountain Heritage’s losses were on loans for construction of retirement homes and second homes, Wallis said. Also Friday, the FDIC released a May 13 order that told Citizens Bank & Trust Co. in Eastman, southeast of Macon, that it needed to assess its senior management.
Citizens Bank & Trust also was told to create a new business plan and take steps within 10 days to resolve certain problem loans. A third bank, Midtown Bank and Trust Co. in Atlanta, was fined $6,500 for violations of laws or regulations the FDIC would not specify.
An FDIC spokesman said fines are proportional to the seriousness of violations and can reach $1 million a day for intentional unlawful acts.
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