Bankruptcy

Community Bank Of Loganville Seized By FDIC, Assets Go To Bank Of Essex

By Scott Riddle

The Community Bank of Loganville was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation yesterday.  See the FDIC notice here.

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

The Bank of Essex in Tappahannock, Va., will assume all of the bank's $611 million in total deposits.  The failure is Georgia’s fourth within the last two years, and the third in the last four months in metro Atlanta.  Community Bank, which was founded in 1946, follows the failure of two Alpharetta-based banks, Integrity Bank and Alpha Bank & Trust.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. expects the failure to cost the insurance fund between $200 million and $240 million. Bank of Essex paid a $3.2 million premium to assume the deposits of the failed bank.

The failure of the bank was blamed, at least in part, on the real estate crisis:

“There is no question that the extended difficulty in the broad Metro-Atlanta real-estate market continues to stress area banks that do a lot of business with real-estate developers and builders," Joe Brannen, president and CEO of Georgia Bankers Association, said in a written release. "However, it remains important to emphasize that the overwhelming majority of banks operating in Georgia meet the criteria for being well capitalized by regulators and have adequate reserves on hand to weather the current stresses to the economy.

The Community Bank’s branches will reopen Monday as the Bank of Essex.  Customers can continue to access their funds Saturday and Sunday via ATMs or writing checks and deposits remain fully insured for up to $250,000.

Full post as published by Georgia Bankruptcy Blog on November 22, 2008 (boomark / email).