US closes banks in Georgia and Washington state

US authorities closed two small banks in west-central Georgia and one in Washington state on Friday, bringing the number of foreclosures in 2011 to 43. CertusBank, a subsidiary of Blue Ridge Holdings Inc, bought the Georgia banks. Blue Ridge is led by former Bank of America Corp and Wachovia Corp executives who want to build a regional bank in the US Southeast.
The new acquisitions were Atlantic Southern Bank of Macon, and First Georgia Banking Company of Franklin. Atlantic Southern Bank had assets of $741.9 million and First Georgia Banking had assets of $731 million as of March 31. Blue Ridge was formed last year with $500 million from investors. In January, it bought a South Carolina bank that regulators closed.
Together, Atlantic Southern and First Georgia Banking had 26 branches, which will reopen on Saturday as branches of CertusBank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, the receiver of closed banks, said it entered into loss-share transactions with CertusBank totalling $1 billion.