For the past four years, seldom a month has passed without regulators ordering one or more Georgia banks to substantially reform their operations.
Though the orders are designed to improve an institution's health and don't predestine a bank collapse, few in Georgia have freed themselves from the most stringent regulatory scrutiny before failure or merging.
On Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced that two Georgia banks had cleared its needs-improvement list the preferred way: under their own power.
Atlanta-based Georgia Banking Co. and Columbus-based Columbus Community Bank were released from FDIC "consent orders" last month, and more could soon follow.
They joined First Intercontinental Bank of Doraville, which had an order waived in February, as the state's only community banks to clear broad FDIC consent or "cease and desist" orders without being closed or merged since early 2008, according to an analysis of an FDIC database of enforcement actions through May 31.
Only a handful of Georgia banks overseen by other national regulators have also cleared such high hurdles in that time.
These orders typically include demands to improve loan underwriting, increase reserves for bad loans and raise investor money.
"It's baby steps," said Chris Marinac, a bank analyst with FIG Partners in Atlanta.
About 350 banks were based in Georgia before the financial crisis. Experts say at least half have received some form of public or private regulatory censure in the past four years.
Private censures are seldom made public, so it is unclear how many banks have been released from those orders.
Seventy-nine Georgia banks have failed since mid-2008, and nearly all were under some form of public or private regulatory order.
Columbus Community was released May 25, on the second anniversary of getting its consent order.
Gary Ledbetter, who became Columbus Community's president and CEO in February 2010, said insiders investing an additional $2.8 million into the bank and committing to reform "really provided the regulators with that comfort that the board was behind us and wanted this thing to succeed."
