DPA/IANS

New York, Oct 24: Two more banks were taken over late Friday by US regulators, bringing to 101 the number of bank failures so far this year.

The latest financial institutions to fall amid the longest recession since the 1930s were regional banks in Florida and Georgia.

After the highly publicised failure of Wall Street investment banks and the federal bail-outs of others, this year's failures have mostly involved smaller, local and regional banks.

The 100th failure was Partners Bank in Naples, Florida, with assets of $66 million. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), which protects small depositors and steps in when banks are deemed insolvent, immediately announced the takeover of Partners Bank by Florida-based Stonegate Bank.

American United Bank of Lawrenceville, Georgia, with assets of $111 million, will be taken over by Ameris Bank, which is also Georgia-based.

The FDIC often arranges for stronger banks to quickly receive the assets and accounts of failing banks.

Alabama's Colonial Bank was the largest to go under, so far, in 2009 with assets of $25 billion, which made it the sixth-largest bank ever to fail in the US.

2009's 101 failures are already the most since 1992.