Regulators on Friday shut down Atlanta-based Georgian Bank, the 95th U.S. bank to fail this year as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades.
In coming months, more banks are expected to buckle under the weight of commercial real estate and other loans that go sour. Those failures could imperil the insurance fund for deposits, already at the lowest point in nearly 20 years.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Georgian Bank, with about $2 billion in assets and $2 billion in deposits as of July 24. First Citizens Bank and Trust Co., based in Columbia, S.C., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of the failed bank. Georgian Bank's five branches will reopen Monday as offices of First Citizens Bank.
In addition, the FDIC and First Citizens Bank agreed to share losses on Georgian Bank's roughly $2 billion in loans and other assets.
The failure of Georgian Bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $892 million. The fund has been so diminished by the wave of collapsing banks that some analysts have warned it could sink into the red by year's end.
The fund fell 20 percent to $10.4 billion at the end of June. That's its lowest point since 1992, at the height of the savings-and-loan crisis. The FDIC estimates bank failures will cost the fund around $70 billion through 2013.
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Fourteen media companies said they are joining forces to fund new ways to track viewership of television programming throughout various platforms.
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are all involved, along with Time Warner and Viacom. Prominent advertisers Procter & Gamble, AT&T and Unilever are also included in the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement.
The companies have all agreed to make contributions of at least $1 million combined. The coalition will give money to companies or individuals that present promising research opportunities.
Television networks have frequently grumbled about Nielsen Media Research, the company that has a virtual monopoly on counting TV viewers, the currency for a multibillion dollar advertising business.
In particular, there are worries about an insufficient ability to account for people who watch programming in different forms -- on their computers, through on-demand services and in public places. Although attempts to compete with Nielsen have failed, networks have been convinced in the past that complaints or other research initiatives prod Nielsen into updating its methods.
But Alan Wurtzel, chief researcher for NBC Universal, said the coalition simply wanted to look for innovative ideas at a time when habits and technology are rapidly changing.
''The notion that this is about Nielsen is just a misunderstanding of why we got together,'' Wurtzel said.
Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, said the coalition hopes Nielsen will be part of the solution.
Nielsen did not immediately respond to e-mail and telephone messages seeking comment Thursday.Sources: NY Times TV Measurement
