Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida Fails; 124th of 2009

State regulators shuttered Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers, Fla., Friday night, bringing the number of failures so far this year to 124.

To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Central Bank, Stillwater, Minnesota, to assume all of the deposits of Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida.

Customers of the failed bank, which will reopen on Monday as a branch of Central Bank, can access their money over the weekend by writing checks or using ATMs or debit cards. Checks will continue to be processed, and borrowers should make mortgage and loan payments as usual.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Commerce Bank had $79.7 million in assets and approx. $76.7 million in deposits. The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $23.6 million.

Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida is the 124th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the nation this year, and the twelfth in Florida. The last bank closed in the state was Orion Bank, Naples, on November 13, 2009.

The bank failure count for 2009 continues to increase, it currently stands at an average of 11 failures per month. While the number is considerable, is still far from 1989’s record high of 534 bank closures which took place during the S&L crisis.

• Become A Funded Futures Trader