by wildcherry on Saturday, December 5th, 2009 | Business, News

As the economy has soured, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have accelerated and sapped billions out of the federal deposit insurance fund. It has fallen into the red.

The FDIC expects the cost of bank failures to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.

Depositors’ money – insured up to $250,000 per account – is not at risk, with the FDIC backed by the government. The FDIC still has about $21 billion cash in loss reserves apart from the insurance fund. It can also tap a Treasury Department credit line of up to $500 billion.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday took over Ohio’s AmTrust Bank, the fourth-largest bank to fail this year, with about $12 billion in assets and $8 billion in deposits. The Cleveland-based bank’s failure is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $2 billion.

Also seized by the FDIC on Friday were three Georgia banks: Buckhead Community Bank, based in Atlanta, with $874 million in assets and $838 million in deposits; First Security National Bank, based in Norcross, Ga., with $128 million in assets and $123 million in deposits; and Tattnall Bank, of Reidsville, Ga., with assets of $49.6 million and deposits of $47.3 million.

Benchmark Bank, based in Aurora, Ill., with $170 million in assets and $181 million in deposits, also was closed, as was Greater Atlantic Bank, of Reston, Va., with $203 million in assets and $179 million in deposits.

Tags: 1st Security National Bank, Amtrust, Banks, Benchmark Bank, Buckhead Community Bank, Failed Banks, Fdic, First Security National Bank, Greater Atlanta Bank, New York Community Bank, Ohio Savings, Sheila Bair, Tattnall Bank