Another weekend failure of a $2.8 billion Georgia bank chain could bring more "deposit inflows" into credit unions in the state, but so far the public seems to be taking bank failures in relative stride, the president/CEO of Georgia Credit Union Affiliates said today.
"There's no panic and this is not like IndyMac with long lines of customers," observed Michael Mercer, the head of GCUA, in commenting on Friday's collapse of the Macon-based Security Bank Corp., placed into receivership by the FDIC and sold to a Pinehurst bank consortium. Mercer was referring to the July 2008 collapse of a billion-dollar California thrift.
Georgia now leads the nation with 16 failures, with the Atlanta Journal Constitution in its weekend editions calling their demise and subsequent takeovers the latest evidence of the state's "banking crisis."
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Mercer said that was a stretch since the problem, stemming from bad real estate loans and brokered CDs at small community banks, "does not seem to be hurting the larger banks." As for CUs, they are well capitalized and faring well.
Nonetheless, bank failures are a basic negative since they "undermine public confidence" in both banks and CUs, Mercer said.
In that vein, in its Monday "e-Bulletin," the Georgia Bankers Association decried the national focus on Georgia "because of our struggles with real estate lending" noting also that "every story reminds readers or listeners of the unfortunate phrase used by a national bank association executive who said 'Georgia is the Chernobyl of banking.'" The GBA said that was "unfortunate" wording and one that "still lingers."
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