BUSINESS BRIEFING / FINANCIAL CRISIS
Times Staff and Wire Reports
Regulators seized two more banks -- including a Missouri institution with a branch in Orange County -- boosting the number of bank failures this year to 25.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said American Sterling Bank of Sugar Creek, Mo., would be taken over by Metcalf Bank of Lee’s Summit, Mo., with Metcalf assuming all of the failed bank’s deposits.
American Sterling branches, including one in Foothill Ranch, are to reopen by Monday under Metcalf’s name, with depositors automatically becoming depositors of Metcalf, the agency said.
The bank was a unit of American Sterling Corp. in Foothill Ranch. A founder of the firm, philanthropist Lawrence Dodge of Dana Point, has been a major contributor to the California Republican Party.
