SCBT assumes deposits of Georgia bank

South Carolina Bank and Trust of Columbia has assumed all the deposits of Habersham Bank of Clarksville, Ga., which was seized by regulators late Friday.

Habersham, which had nearly $390 million in assets, was closed by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver. The FDIC then entered into a purchase-and-assumption agreement with SCBT to assume all of the deposits and nearly all of the assets of Habersham Bank.

The eight affected branches will reopen beginning Saturday as branches of Habersham Bank, a division of SCBT, according to information released by the FDIC.

As of Dec. 31, 2010, Habersham Bank, founded in 1904, had approximately $340 million in total deposits.

SCRA a costly proposition for SC

Retired South Carolina businessman Bill Masters issued a stinging indictment of the S.C. Research Authority, the state agency he chairs, with his resignation letter and accompanying report, sent to Gov. Nikki Haley earlier this month.

Masters delivered a withering assessment of SCRA in his missive, alleging, among other things, that the organization is run mostly for the benefit of top management, it manipulates government contracts and data to pass audits, and board trustees are allowed to have input into issues and decisions from which they benefit without having to disclosure their affiliations.

Details of the letter and report can be found here, in a story that appeared on The Nerve. (Full disclosure: I work for The Nerve.)

One of the key points Masters made in his report was that SCRA uses the unfair advantage of taxpayer subsidies from its state-derived funding to compete with private enterprise in the real estate sector.