U.S. regulators close small bank in Chicago

Banks • GreenChoice Bank is the 14th bank closed this year, down from 157 in 2010.

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Washington • Regulators have closed a small lender in Illinois, bringing U.S. bank failures this year to 14 after 24 closures in all of 2013.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that it has taken over GreenChoice Bank FSB, based in Chicago. The bank, which operated three branches, had about $72.9 million in assets and $71 million in deposits as of March 31.

Providence Bank LLC, based in South Holland, Ill. has agreed to assume all of the failed bank's deposits. The FDIC said Providence Bank also agreed to buy roughly $67.7 million of GreenChoice Bank's assets.

The failure of GreenChoice Bank is expected to cost the deposit-insurance fund $14.2 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.