Bank failures now at 17 for 2009

The FDIC announced late on Friday the failure of the 17^th U S Bank this year with the closing of the Freedom Bank of Georgia, Commerce, Georgia. The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance appointed the FDIC as receiver which immediately entered into an agreement with Northeast Georgia Bank, Lavonia, Georgia to assume all of the deposits of the Commerce, Georgia bank.

With the closing of the Georgia bank a recent pattern has been broken in that an average of two banks per week have been failing in the United States and the report of only one bank failure this week could be seen as a small, bright spot in a dismal week. The FDIC sought additional funding assistance from Congress earlier as their insurance fund, which is provided through fees paid by the banking system, was being depleted.

As is common practice with an FDIC arranged acquisition of a failed bank, the customers of Freedom Bank of Georgia immediately become customers of Northeast Georgia Bank with no disruption to access to their accounts. ATM and debit cards also remain active and all loan payments will continue to be made in the same way.

Freedom Bank’s four branches will reopen on Monday as branches of Northeast Georgia Bank.