Breaking from the norm that has prevailed for most of the year, there’s only one bank failure to report on this week – San Joaquin Bank in Bakersfield, California.

San Joaquin brings the FDIC’s tally of failed banks in 2009 to just one away from the 100-mark. But the single collapse last week follows no bank closures the week prior – the first time that has happened since the week of June 8th.

So, does the lull in the FDIC’s closure announcements mean the pace of bank failures is subsiding? Not likely.

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair says there are more than 400 institutions on the agency’s so-called troubled watch list, and just two weeks ago when the FDIC board was deliberating actions to replenish its dwindling insurance fund, Bair said she expected hundreds of more institutional failures to come.

The staggering numbers of banks to go bust since the economy’s downturn have shrunk the agency’s deposit protection fund to its lowest level since the savings & loan crisis of the last decade. The agency recently proposed that U.S. banks prepay their deposit insurance premiums for the next three years. FDIC officials estimate that the cost of bank failures between 2009 and 2013 will be another $100 billion.

The latest bank to go under, San Joaquin Bank, is expected to cost the FDIC $103 million.

San Joaquin was shut down by the California Department of Financial Institutions. The FDIC brokered a deal with Citizens Business Bank of Ontario, California, to take over San Joaquin’s five branches and assume all of its $631 million in deposits.

Citizens Business Bank also purchased “essentially all” of San Joaquin’s $775 million in assets, of which the FDIC agreed to share in the losses on approximately $683 million.