Another week, another round of bank closures. As the economic downturn and soured loans continue to take their toll on community-based lenders, the FDIC was brought in to shut down five more institutions on Friday —in Iowa, Arizona, Missouri, and two in Illinois. These latest closings bring the total number of bank failures so far this year to 89. Vantus Bank in Sioux City, Iowa, was the largest of the five institutions shuttered last week, with 15 branches, about $368 million in deposits, and total assets of $458 million. In its second FDIC-assisted acquisition this year, Great Southern Bank of Springfield, Missouri, has agreed to take over Vantus’ operations and all deposits, and will purchase $387 million of the defunct bank’s assets, with the FDIC sharing losses on $338 million. According to a local Iowa newspaper, Vantus customers were “stunned” that the shutdown happened so abruptly. The Des Moines Register reported that Vantus’ problems stemmed from real estate loans that went bad, including those made to Regency Homes, which held the title of Iowa’s largest homebuilder before it collapsed last year. The FDIC says Vantus’ failure will cost $168 million. Vantus is the first bank in Iowa to go under this year. First State Bank in Flagstaff, Arizona, was shuttered by the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions on Friday. The FDIC brokered a deal with Sunwest Bank of

Tustin, California, to assume all of First State Bank’s $95 million in deposits and $105 million in assets. Sunwest had no presence in Arizona before agreeing to acquire First State Bank. The six branches of First State will reopen on Tuesday as branches of Sunwest. First State Bank called itself the “only local community bank” in Flagstaff, but according to a regulatory court filing, the institution was “in an unsafe and unsound condition,” after failing to boost its “rapidly deteriorating” capital cushion by $2 million by the September 1 deadline mandated by the FDIC. First State’s failure is expected to cost the FDIC an estimated $47 million. First Bank of Kansas City in Missouri, was also closed by state regulators. Great American Bank of De Soto, Kansas, agreed to take over the failed institution’s operations — its sole branch in Kansas City, $15 million in deposits, and $16 million of assets. FDIC officials said First Bank’s closure is expected to cost the agency’s insurance fund $6 million. First Bank is the fourth institution in the Kansas City area to be closed this year. The Office of Thrift Supervision closed Platinum Community Bank in Rolling Meadow, Illinois. No acquiring institution was secured for the failed bank, so the FDIC approved a payout on insured deposits. Platinum had deposits of $305 million and assets of $345 million. The FDIC entered into an agreement with MB Financial Bank of Chicago to accept Platinum’s federal government direct deposits, such as social security and veterans’ payments. The FDIC estimates the cost of the failure to its Deposit Insurance Fund to be approximately $114.3 million. In a separate transaction, MB Financial bought about $150 million of non-brokered deposits and $212 million in assets belonging to Oak Forest, Illinois-based InBank, which was also shut down by state regulators on Friday. InBank’s three branches have reopened as offices of MB Financial. The FDIC estimates that InBank’s failure will cost $66 million. So far this year, 15 Illinois banks have been shuttered.