Federal regulators on Friday shut down Columbian Bank and Trust Co. in Kansas, which was struggling with losses on soured real estate loans. It was the ninth failure this year of a federally insured bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the bank, located in Topeka, Kansas. It had $752 million in assets and $622 million in deposits as of June 30. The FDIC did not give a reason for the closure, but Columbian reported $92 million in delinquent loans in the second quarter, citing a “volatile real estate market.” The bank set aside $9.2 million for loan losses in the first quarter. Columbian has said that five borrowers represented nearly half the $92 million in problem loans. Many of its troubled loans were in construction and development. The FDIC said the bank's deposits will be assumed by Citizens Bank and Trust of Chillicothe, Missouri. Its nine offices will reopen Monday as branches of Citizens Bank. Depositors of Columbian Bank will continue to have full access to their deposits, the agency said. The nine failures so far this year compare with three for all of 2007, and federal banking officials have said that more banks are in danger of collapse. The pressures of tighter credit, tumbling home prices and rising foreclosures have been battering many banks, large and small, across the nation. The FDIC estimated that the resolution of Columbian Bank will cost the deposit insurance fund around $60 million. Regular deposit accounts are insured up to $100,000, while retirement accounts have $250,000 insurance coverage. There were about $46 million in uninsured deposits held in 610 accounts at Columbian Bank that potentially exceeded the insurance limit, the FDIC said. The FDIC has been beefing up its staff of examiners to handle the anticipated spike in bank failures this year. The largest bank failure so far involved savings and loan IndyMac Bank, which was seized by regulators on July 11 with about $32 billion in assets and deposits of $19 billion. The seizure of Pasadena, California-based IndyMac, which was the largest regulated thrift to fail in the United States, prompted hundreds of angry customers to line up for hours in Southern California to demand their money. IndyMac also was the second-largest financial institution to close in US history, after Continental Illinois National Bank in 1984.
