US authorities closed two small US banks in Illinois and Nevada on Friday, bringing the total number of foreclosures in 2011 to 28. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp announced that authorities had closed Western Springs National Bank and Trust, in Western Springs, Illinois, which had about $186.7 million in assets. Heartland Bank and Trust Co of Bloomington, Illinois, has assumed the bank's deposits.
The other closed bank was Nevada Commerce Bank in Las Vegas, which had assets of about $144.9 million. City National bank of Los Angeles assumed all the bank's deposits. Both of the failed banks had two branches. In 2010, 157 banks with total assets of $92 billion failed. That compares to 140 banks failing in 2009 with total assets of $169.7 billion.
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has said the agency expects the number of failures to drop in 2011. Community banks continue to struggle with the weak economy and many are facing problems related to their exposure to the commercial real estate market.
Most of the banks that have failed so far in 2011 have had less than $1 billion in assets. Larger banks have recovered much more quickly from the 2007-2009 financial crisis. When releasing the latest quarterly results on February 23, however, Bair said the outlook for the industry as a whole is improving including for small institutions.
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