West Virginia is home to the nation's 12th failure of a federally insured bank so far this year, The Associated Press reports.
"Federal regulators have shut down Ameribank Inc.," based in McDowell County, "saying it overextended loans for the rehabilitation of distressed properties," AP reports.
Appointed receiver of the bank, The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. "said Friday the bank's insured deposits will be assumed by Pioneer Community Bank Inc. of Iaeger, W.Va., and Citizens Savings Bank in Martins Ferry, Ohio," the article said.
The Charleston Gazette notes that Ameribank had previously taken the assets and branch offices of The First National Bank of Keystone, which "collapsed after federal investigators discovered massive embezzlement and risky investments there" in 1999.
"No one is accusing Ameribank officials of wrongdoing, but risky investments brought down both banks," The Gazette added.
Keystone remains among the top-1o worst U.S. failures to tap the U.S. Bank Insurance Fund. Three top executives were convicted and sentenced to lengthy federal prison terms. They included the then-longtime mayor of Keystone, the late Billie Cherry, whose former properties outside Keystone are the subject of an entirely different Gazette article.
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