Four More Banks Fail

More bad news for banks and consumers: Four additional regional banks failed on Friday, bringing the tally for this year up to a whopping 29. In comparison, only 25 banks went broke during all of 2008. First Bank of Beverly Hills is the fourth bank in California to fail this year, and will cost the FDIC $394 million, while American Southern Bank's deposits were sold to the Bank of North Georgia at a cost of $41.9 million for the FDIC. Level One Bank will take over $151.7 million in deposits and assets of the now-defunct Michigan Heritage Bank. The Obama administration is releasing the full version of its "stress tests" of major banks on May 4, but the Federal Reserve reports that, at least for now, many of the 19 large banks have enough capital to survive.