21st Bank Failure of 2009: Omni National Bank in Georgia

There was only one bank failure today. It's another bank headquartered in Georgia. It was closed today by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC was named receiver. Here's the FDIC's press release link, and here's a summary of the closure:

• Closed Bank: Omni National Bank
• Location: Atlanta, GA (headquarters)
• Size: 6 branches (in GA, FL, IL & TX) $956 million assets, $797 million deposits
• Possible Uninsured Deposits: $2 million
• Acquiring Bank: SunTrust Bank (only temporarily)
• Cost to Deposit Insurance Fund: $290 million (estimated)
• Financial Ratings: 0 star (lowest) at BauerFinancial, 1 star (lowest) at Bankrate.com

SunTrust Bank is not permanently taking over Omni National Bank. SunTrust is only acting as paying agent for the insured deposits of Omni National Bank. SunTrust will operate the former branches of Omni National until April 27, 2009. At that time, all of the former Omni National branches will be closed. Customers in the Georgia and Florida branches who do not open new accounts at SunTrust or withdraw their funds by April 27th will be automatically transferred to SunTrust. For depositors of the Omni National branches in Illinois and Texas who have not closed their accounts by April 27, SunTrust will mail checks to the address of record.

For those with CDs at the Texas or the Illinois branches, it appears their CDs will definitely be closed. All interest on insured deposits accrued through today will be paid at the same rate. According to the Q&A #14, "SunTrust Bank will be reviewing rates and will provide further information soon."

Out of the 21 bank closures this year, this one was only the fifth which was not an all-deposit transfer in which another bank assumes all deposits including those above the FDIC insurance limits. So there will likely be some Omni National Bank depositors who will lose some of their money. On the plus side, the estimated uninsured deposits were relatively low, $2 million out of $796.8 million of total deposits. This was much less than the uninsured deposits in the second and third bank closures of 2009. Perhaps people are getting the message of keeping deposits under the FDIC limits. Here's a summary of all five bank failures in 2009 that did not involve an all-deposit transfer:

Potentially uninsured deposits of 2009 bank closures:

• 21st failure: $2 million out of $796.8 million total deposits (no assuming bank)
• 18th failure: $0.78 million out of $278 million deposits (no assuming bank)
• 4th failure: no estimated uninsured deposits out of $283 million total deposits (no assuming bank)
• 3rd failure: $13 million out of $677 million total deposits
• 2nd failure: $39 million out of $367 million total deposits

I've posted on Omni National Bank and its high-yield CDs several times over the last year. For the second half of last year, the bank had the lowest ratings for safety and soundness at BauerFinancial and Bankrate.com.

References:

• FDIC list of failed banks
• Last 20 of my bank failure posts
• Status of Making the $250K FDIC Limit Permanent
• Recent FDIC and NCUA deposit insurance changes
• 10 Lessons from the 2008 bank failures
• Review of the 2008 credit union liquidations

Thanks to the readers who emailed me news of this closure.