Barrow Journal

For the 14th time this year, a Georgia bank has failed.

The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance on Friday closed Mountain Heritage Bank in Clayton, which is the county seat of Rabun County.

First American Bank and Trust Co. of Athens which has a branch in Winder entered into an agreement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to take over all of the failed bank’s deposits and most of its assets.

According to an FDIC press release, Mountain Heritage Bank on March 31 had $103.7 million in total assets and $89.6 million in deposits. The loss-share agreement with First American will cover $69.2 million of the assets, which in banking terminology means outstanding loans. The cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) will be about $41.1 million.

Mountain Heritage Bank is the 48th FDIC-insured banking institution in the United States to fail in 2011.

Over the past three years, a total of 65 Georgia financial institutions have been closed by state regulators.

Mountain Heritage Bank had two branches in Clayton. Both will open Monday as new branches of First American Bank and Trust Co.

Arizona-based DriveTime, which sells and finances used cars, is expanding into the Barrow County market and will have a job fair Thursday, Feb. 10, at the Winder Community Center.

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