2nd UPDATE: Regulators Close Banks In Maryland, Minnesota

Federal and state regulators Friday shuttered banks in Maryland and Minnesota, bringing the number of failed banks nationwide this year to 83.

U.S. regulators closed Bradford Bank of Baltimore, while announcing an agreement with Manufacturers & Traders Trust Co. (MTB) to assume all deposits of the failed institution.

Mainstreet Bank of Forest Lake, Minn., was also closed by the state's Department of Commerce, with Stillwater-based Central Bank taking over the deposits.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named receiver of both banks, estimated the agency's deposit insurance fund would take a hit of $95 million from Mainstreet's closure and $97 million on the Bradford failure.

Bank failures have reached levels not seen since the savings-and-loan crisis of the early 1990s as the economic slump continues to take its toll on the financial sector. In 2008, regulators shut down 25 banks.

The closings have cost the FDIC about $19 billion, and the deposit insurance fund that protects more than $4.5 trillion in U.S. bank deposits is quickly running out. The FDIC said Thursday that the fund held just $10.4 billion at the end of June, the lowest level since the S&L crisis.

Meanwhile, the agency added another 111 names in the second quarter to its list of "problem" banks considered at higher risk of failure, bringing the total to 416, despite signs of improvement in the broader economy.

Bradford's nine branches will reopen Monday as branches of M&T, of Buffalo, N.Y.

In addition to assuming all $383 million of Bradford's deposits, M&T also agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets, which totaled $452 million.

The FDIC and M&T entered into a loss-share transaction on about $338 million in assets, in which M&T will share in the losses on the asset pools covered under the agreement.

Mainstreet's eight branches will reopen Saturday as operations of Central Bank.

Central Bank will pay the FDIC a premium of 0.10% to assume the $434 million in deposits. It also entered into a loss-share transaction with the FDIC on about $268 million of Mainstreet's $459 million of assets.

-By Tom Barkley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9275; [e-mail]