This year has seen a big decline in the number of non-bank mortgage lenders to close down, but the improvement has been offset by a spike in failed financial institutions.

From January 1 through April 9, 2010, there have been a total of 55 mortgage-related closings, as tracked by Mortgage Graveyard. At about the same point last year, 50 closings had been tracked.

The increase traces directly to institutional bank failures, which doubled compared to a year earlier. So far this year, 42 financial institutions have collapsed. Over the same duration in 2009, bank failures stood at 21.

Among the most notable closings of 2010 are California’s First Regional Bank and La Jolla Bank, with expected losses of $826 million and $882 million, respectively. Georgia’s Community Bank and Trust is also at the top of that list, The FDIC projects an $828 million loss from its collapse.

Credit union failures have also risen by half, from four during the first three months of 2009 to six in the first part of 2010.

Non-bank mortgage operations to close, on the other hand, are two-thirds lower than where they stood at this time last year – seven so far in 2010, compared to 25 during the same period in 2009.

One notable non-bank closing this year was that of Equitable Reverse Mortgage Co. in Chicago, which claimed to be “the 14th largest reverse mortgage lender in the nation.” Another collapse, Colorado’s Assurity Financial Services LLC, touted its standing as a “top non-imploded” lender before throwing in the towel.

“We saw regulatory actions against U.S. financial institutions nearly double between the first-quarter 2009 and this year, suggesting the acceleration in bank failures is unlikely to abate,” said Sam Garcia, founder and publisher of MortgageDaily.com, which operates the Mortgage Graveyard tracking site. “However, a thawing of the market for mortgage-related assets could help move some institutions out of the ‘troubled’ category,” he said.