U.S. regulators close small bank in Oklahoma

Economy • Freedom State Bank is the country's 12th bank closed in 2014.

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Washington • Regulators have closed a lender in Oklahoma, bringing U.S. bank failures this year to 12 after 24 closures in all of 2013.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has taken over Freedom State Bank, based in Freedom, Okla.

The bank, which operated one branch, had about $22.8 million in assets and $20.9 million in deposits.

Alva State Bank & Trust Co. agreed to pay the FDIC a premium of 1 percent to assume all the deposits of Freedom State Bank. It also agreed to buy roughly $17.7 million of the failed bank's assets.

The failure of Freedom State Bank is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $5.8 million.

U.S. bank failures have been declining since they peaked in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.

Only three banks went under in 2007. That jumped to 25 in 2008, after the financial meltdown, and ballooned to 140 in 2009.

In 2010, regulators seized 157 banks, the most in any year since the savings and loan crisis two decades ago. The FDIC has said 2010 likely was the high-water mark for bank failures from the recession. They declined to 92 in 2011 and fell to 51 in 2012.

In a strong economy, about four or five banks close annually.

From 2008 through 2011, bank failures cost the deposit insurance fund an estimated $88 billion, and the fund fell into the red in 2009. With failures slowing, the fund's balance turned positive in the second quarter of 2011.The fund had a $48.9 billion balance as of March 31.

The FDIC has said it expects bank failures from 2012 through 2016 will cost the fund $10 billion.