The Risk Professional: USA reaches 100 failed banks so far in 2010

Thunder Bank was closed by regulators on 23 July. The most recent figures available for the bank show that, as of 31 March this year, it had deposits of only USD28.5 million plus "assets" of just USD32.6 million.

The bank has been taken over by Bennington State Bank, also of Kansas, but although Bennington has agreed to purchase "substantially all the assets" of Thunder Bank, it has not paid a premium for the deposits (therefore valuing its goodwill at zero) and has entered into a loss-sharing agreement with the regulators if the assets turn out to be worth less than presently thought.

Thunder Bank is another example of the tiny banks which are going to the wall with ever greater frequency, victims of capital raising problems which the US government's bail out plans were supposed to resolve.

But other factors in the failures of banks of similar size, with a handful of branches, is the hugely increased cost of regulation which requires an economy of scale that the small banks cannot achieve.

So far this year, 103 mostly small banks have failed in the USA.