Sanderson bank closed

Sanderson State Bank was closed Friday, Dec. 12, by the Texas Department of Banking, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named receiver.

The Pecos County State Bank in Fort Stockton assumed all of Sanderson’s deposits, including those that exceeded the deposit insurance limit.

The bank reopened Monday morning as a branch of the Pecos bank, and customers had uninterrupted access to their funds, state banking officials said.

As of Friday, the bank had deposits totaling about $27 million, including $16 million in brokered deposits.

Of Sanderson State Bank’s $37 million assets, $31 million were in loans and leases; $15.4 million in closed-end first liens on residential property, and $7.2 million in C&D loans.

Over the weekend, customers of Sanderson State Bank had access to all of their money by writing checks or using ATMs or debit cards. Checks drawn on the bank will continue to be processed. Loan customers should continue to make their payments as usual, according to the FDIC.

The FDIC likes to close banks on Friday after hours so they can reopen as branches of the acquiring bank on the following Monday morning.

Sanderson, about 80 miles southeast of Alpine, is a town of about 800 people.

The Sanderson closing was one of two made Friday by bank regulators. Haven Trust Bank of Duluth, Georgia, was seized and sold by the FDIC to BB&T Corp. of Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The acquisitions by BB&T and Pecos County Bank were “the ‘least costly’ resolution for the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund,” the Washington-based FDIC said in a statement.

Regulators have closed the most banks in 15 years, and the annual total now exceeds the combined toll for the previous six years, with the collapses of Washington Mutual Inc. and IndyMac Bancorp Inc. among the biggest in history.

BB&T will buy about $55 million of Haven’s $572 million in assets and pay $112,000 for the failed bank’s $515 million in deposits, the FDIC said. The agency will retain the remaining assets “for later disposition.” The deposit insurance fund, supported by fees on insured banks, will pay an estimated $200 million, the agency said.

Pecos will buy $3.8 million of about $37 million in Sanderson’s assets and pay a premium of 0.55 percent to assume the failed bank’s $27.9 million in deposits, the FDIC said. The deposit insurance fund will pay $12.5 million, the agency said.

Failures

The U.S. is seeking to avert failures by using $250 billion from a bank-rescue fund to boost lender capital after tighter credit contributed to a freeze in markets. The FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in November allowed private equity firms and other investors to buy assets and deposits of failing lenders, expanding the pool of bidders.

The FDIC on Nov. 25 classified 171 banks as “problem” in the third quarter, a 46 percent jump from the second quarter, and said industry earnings fell 94 percent to $1.73 billion from a the prevision year. The agency doesn’t name “problem” banks.

The FDIC oversees 8,384 institutions with $13.6 trillion in assets, and insures deposits of as much as $250,000 per depositor per bank and the same amount for retirement accounts. The agency has proposed doubling premiums charged to banks for coverage to replenish its reserves amid agency forecasts that bank failures through 2013 will cost almost $40 billion.

The faces of Christmas

If it doesn’t feel like Christmas yet, blame a bah-humbug or the snowless weather, but not all the happy celebrations in Alpine.

County eliminates election post

Brewster County no longer will have an elections chief.

Sanderson bank closed

Sanderson State Bank was closed Friday, Dec. 12, by the Texas Department of Banking, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named receiver.