Banks in South, Northwest Fail

On Friday, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency took control of Hometown National Bank in Longview, Washington.

The regulator made the move because the bank saw its assets and earnings deteriorate as a result of
unsafe or unsound practices.

“The OCC also found that the bank incurred losses that depleted its capital, that it is critically under-capitalized, and that there is no reasonable prospect that the bank will become adequately capitalized,”
a news release said.

The OCC issued a cease-and-desist order against Hometown in July 2009. An OCC prohibition order was issued against
William J. Widmer Jr. of Hometown in November 2014.

Hometown was founded in 2000. It had just five employees at the time of its demise.

The OCC handed the failed financial institution over the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as
receiver. Following a secret bid process, Twin City Bank assumed Hometown’s nearly $5 million in deposits and acquired $4 million of its $5 million in assets — which included $1 million in residential loans and $1 million in commercial real estate loans.

The FDIC expects to deplete its deposit insurance fund by almost $2 million as a result of Hometown’s failure.

Also on Friday, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance seized The Bank of Georgia pursuant to the Official Code of Georgia, Section 7-1-150(a).

Peachtree, Georgia-based Bank
of Georgia was established in 2000. As of its demise, there were 66 people on its payroll.

Total assets as of June 30 were $294 million and included $32 million in one-to-four family residential loans, $96 million in CRE loans and $25 million in construction-and-development loans.

It was hit with an FDIC cease-and-desist order in June 2009.

The FDIC, which was named receiver, awarded the winning bid for Bank of Georgia to Fidelity Bank, which assumed all of the failed bank’s $281 million in deposits and purchased $255 million of its assets.

More than $23 million in FDIC losses are expected from Bank of Georgia’s failure.