WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Georgia regulators shut down two banks in the state Friday, with Ameris Bancorp (ABCB) taking over their operations. The closures of High Trust Bank and One Georgia Bank bring the total number of bank failures in the U.S. this year to 53, with 16 of those in Georgia alone. Still, the pace of failures has slowed from last year, when 157 banks were shut down by regulators. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Moultrie-based Ameris acquired all the deposits and virtually all of the assets of Stockbridge-based High Trust and Atlanta-based One Georgia Bank. High Trust had total assets of $192.5 million and deposits of $189.5 million at the end of March, while One Georgia Bank had $186.3 million in assets and $162.1 million in deposits. The FDIC estimated that the cost of the two failures to the Deposit Insurance Fund would be $110.4 million. -By Tom Barkley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9275, tom.barkley@dowjones.com
