Monday Morning Cup of Coffee

A look at the stories on HousingWire’s weekend desk… with more coverage to come on bigger issues. Five failed banks on Friday pushed the total for 2009 to 45. The closures are estimated to cost a combined $264.2m to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s insurance fund. The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed Community Bank of West Georgia and named as receiver the FDIC. The bank had $199.4m in assets and $182.5m in deposits. Beyond an estimated $1.1m of deposits in excess of insurance limits, the FDIC expects the bank will cost the insurance fund $85m. The Georgia Department of Banking and Finance closed Neighborhood Community Bank and named as receiver the FDIC, which entered an agreement with CharterBank to assume all the bank’s deposits and $209.6m of assets. Neighborhood Community held $221.6m of assets and $191.3m of deposits. The bank’s failure is expected to cost the FDIC’s insurance fund $66.7m. The California Department of Financial Institutions shut down Mirae Bank, naming as receiver the FDIC, which entered an agreement with Wilshire State Bank to assume all of Mirae’s $362m of deposits and approximately $449m of its $456m of assets. The bank’s failure is estimated to cost the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund $50m. The Minnesota Department of Commerce shut down Horizon Bank, naming as receiver the FDIC, which entered an agreement with Stearns Bank to assume all the failed bank’s deposits. Stearns Bank paid a 0.75% premium to acquire all $69.4m of Horizon Bank’s deposits and also agreed to purchase $84.4m of Horizon’s $87.6m of assets. The failure is estimated to cost a total $33.5m to the FDIC’s insurance fund. The California Department of Financial Institutions shut down MetroPacific Bank and named as receiver the FDIC, which entered a purchase agreement with Sunwest Bank to assume all of MetroPacific’s $73m of deposits, save approximately $6m of brokered deposits. The failed bank also held $80m of assets, and its failure will cost the FDIC’s insurance fund an estimated $29m. Moody’s Investor Service confirmed The PMI Group’s senior debt ratings of ‘B3’ and revised the ratings outlook to ‘developing.’ The ratings action comes after PMI executed its amended and restated credit agreement, which reduces the size of the facility to $125m and eliminates certain financial covenants and events of default contained in the previous revolving credit facility.  “[T]he confirmation of PMI’s senior debt rating reflects the reduction in near term default risk as a result of the amended terms of the bank credit facility,” Moody’s said in its release. The House of Representatives narrowly passed a sweeping bill that calls for new homes to be built 30% more energy-efficient than currently mandated in a code from 2006. The new requirement would remain in place until 2014, when builders will have to target a 50% more efficient requirement. The target would then increase 5% every three years. The National Association of Home Builders is already speaking out against the legislation, saying it calls for too great a change without consideration for the materials and equipment necessary to meet the requirements. Chairman Joe Robson’s argument boiled down to, higher building costs associated with the new energy efficient standard would drive up new home prices and devastate affordability for working class households. “The hard truth is that we can’t build our way out of this problem,” he said. “We need to make sure our utilities more efficiently generate and transmit power. We need to make our existing housing stock more energy efficient.” Write to Diana Golobay.