January, 21 , 2010

The U.S. agency charged with dismantling or selling off failed banks said it is equipped to deal with what it sees as a busy 2010, according to remarks to be delivered before Congress on Thursday.The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp expects that bank failures will remain elevated this year, said Mitchell Glassman, director of the FDIC's division of resolutions and receiverships.Regulators seized 140 banks in 2009, the highest annual level since 1992 in the wake of the savings and loan crisis. Many of the institutions collapsed due to deteriorating loans from the credit boom.

"While the economy is showing signs of improvement, recovery in the banking industry tends to lag behind other sectors. We expect to see the level of failures continue to be high during 2010," Glassman said in testimony posted to the website of the House of Representatives subcommittee on financial institutions.The FDIC has said it expects the total bill for bank failures to reach $100 billion for the period of 2009 through 2013.FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair told a commercial real estate conference on Wednesday that troubles in the commercial sector will increasingly be a driver of bank failures this year.