Federal regulators close Waterfield Bank 

Posted: 6:58 pm Fri, March 5, 2010
By Danielle Ulman
Daily Record Business Writer

Federal regulators shut down Waterfield Bank Friday evening, the third bank to fail in Maryland since 2009.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over as receiver after the Germantown-based bank could not find a merger partner or liquidate its assets.

The Office of Thrift Supervision has set up a new institution, Waterfield Bank FA, to take over operations of the bank for the next month. Customers will have until April 5 to access their insured money — anything less than $250,000 — and move it to other banks.

Because the FDIC could not find a bank to take over Waterfield’s assets, the costs to its deposit insurance fund will be an estimated $51 million. As of Dec. 31, Waterfield had $155.6 million in assets and $156.4 million in deposits.

Waterfield joined Suburban Federal Savings Bank and Bradford Bank on the list of failed Maryland banks since the financial crisis began. Before that, no bank had failed in the state since 1993. It’s the 25th bank to fail nationwide this year.

Waterfield, which had one branch and took deposits online and through multiple affinity groups, will reopen under its new name on Monday. Online banking services will also resume Monday.

Customers who had certificates of deposit or retirement accounts with Waterfield will receive checks from the FDIC by mail.

Banking activities — direct deposit, check writing, ATM and debit card use — will continue through April 5. Customers who have not retrieved their deposits by then will receive checks from the FDIC by mail.

Customers who have more than $250,000 in their accounts with Waterfield should  contact the FDIC. The FDIC estimated that deposits exceeding insurance limits totaled $407,000 on Friday, but said that figure is likely to change as it works with customers of Waterfield Bank.

Those with questions about the closure of Waterfield should e-mail waterfieldbankquestions@fdic.gov or visit http://www.fdic.gov/bank/individual/failed/waterfield.html.