Troubled Blue Ridge Savings Bank of Asheville, NC, was closed by the NC Office of Commissioner of Banks Friday, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver.
The FDIC then entered into agreement with Thomasville-based Bank of North Carolina to assume all of the deposits of Blue Ridge, according to an FDIC press release.
Blue Ridge, founded by former US Congressman Charles Taylor in 1978, had 11 branches and a little more than $160 million in total assets as of June 30. That’s down sharply from three years earlier, when Blue Ridge had nearly $270 million in assets.
Problems in the real estate market hurt Blue Ridge, according to the Asheville Citizen Times.
Blue Ridge was cited for “unsound practices” and “violations of laws and regulations in late 2008” by state and federal regulators, according to media reports.
The closing marks the second Tar Heel State bank to be shuttered this year. The other was also based in Asheville: The Bank of Asheville, on Jan. 21, 2011.
Blue Ridge was one of four banks seized by regulators Friday – the others being in Georgia, Illinois and New Jersey – and brings the total number of failed financial institutions in 2011 to 80.
North Carolina has been relatively unscathed by the banking difficulties that have afflicted much of the nation.
Just four institutions have been shuttered since early 2009, with the other two being Cape Fear Bank and the Cooperative Bank, both of which were located in Wilmington and both were closed in 2009.
The FDIC estimates that the cost of Blue Ridge to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $38 million.
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