Regulators shut down another small South Georgia bank on Friday, the 17th so far this year in the state and the first in Georgia in more than a month.
Statesboro-based First Southern National Bank was seized and sold to Albany-based Heritage Bank of the South. The sole First Southern branch will reopen under its new flag during normal business hours on Saturday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
Georgia leads the nation with 68 failures since mid-2008.
First Southern had $164.6 million in total assets and $159.7 million in total deposits, according to the FDIC. The regulator said Heritage Bank agreed to purchase the bulk of the failed bank’s assets and all of its deposits in a loss-share transaction.
The FDIC estimates the failure will result in a $39.6 million loss to its insurance fund, which protects depositors.
First Southern was founded in 2002. Like other failed banks in the state, First Southern was plagued by losses on real estate loans that followed in the wake of the economic collapse.
More than a quarter of its loans were either delinquent, in default or foreclosed as of the end of second quarter, according to an analysis of FDIC data by FIG Partners in Atlanta.
In November 2010 the bank entered into a consent order with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to improve the bank’s operations and to raise investor cash.
First Southern is the first bank to fail in Georgia since Stockbridge-based High Trust Bank and Atlanta-based One Georgia Bank were closed July 15. The 17 failures in Georgia so far this year leads the nation in 2011.
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