ATLANTA,None — Sixteen Georgia banks have failed this year. Regulators closed banks in Henry County and midtown Atlanta on Friday.
"I felt pretty safe about the money," said Chris Schroder, whose deposits with the failed One Georgia Bank are insured by the FDIC.
"I'm sad about the news because I've been a customer of One Georgia Bank for three years, but this looks like a very well capitalized bank."
Ameris Bank in Moultrie, Ga., has taken over eight failed Georgia banks, including the two closed Friday. The bank said it wants to gain footholds in new markets.
Consumer investigator Jim Strickland decided to look at the health of Ameris Bank since it's been gobbling up so many other institutions.
Ameris' chief financial officer confirmed Strickland's discovery that it has a $52 million federal loan outstanding. The money came from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, commonly found as a TARP bailout.
The FDIC says the unpaid loan is not a problem.
"The FDIC does not sell banks to other banks who are in themselves a low-rated bank," said senior ombusman Gerald Billings.
Strickland obtained figures that show Ameris Bank has $240 million in loans that are either in trouble or soon will be. The bank would not let Channel 2's camera inside, but the CFO confirmed the figures, adding that Ameris obtained most of the bad loans from buying failed banks. The FDIC covers 80 percent of such losses.
Banking consultant Joe Waites said it's likely that Ameris will have more failures to pick over in a crisis that may extend another two years.
"I would say there are at least 85 to 90 still in trouble," said Waites.
Ameris has lost nearly $40 million since the first quarter of 2009, but CFO Dennis Zember said the bank is well capitalized and stable.
"None of our losses impaired our own credit ratio or our reputation on Wall Street. We're not back to the roaring 2007s, but things are turning," he told Strickland.