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September 13, 2009 (LPAC)—Yesterday in Chicago, the Corus Bank was closed down by the Comptroller of the Currency, which also shut a small bank in Minnesota (Brickwell Community Bank) and one in Washington state (Venture Bank), bringing the national total to 92 bank failures this year in the United States.

Corus is the 16th bank to be shut in Illinois, a Top 400 mid-tier bank with a deposits of about $7 billion, operating through 11 branches. Corus, a big lender in condominium real estate, was well known to be on the ropes for months. Its chairman and CEO bailed out in April. In its second quarter financial report filed with the FDIC this year, Corus Bankshares's wholly owned bank, Corus Bank National Association, admitted that it had negative equity capital of $162 million dollars, compared to a positive $621 million at the end of 2008, when it was already in trouble. Despite being insolvent, the bank remained open, racking up losses, when it should have already been placed into bankruptcy protection for orderly reorganization months ago.

In covering the case of Corus earlier this week, EIR's John Hoefle stressed that, "Corus is far from alone in this regard, and at only $162 million in the hole is relatively healthy compared to many of its banking peers, some of which have unreported losses so vast as to make Corus's shortfall seem like a rounding error. Think about that, the next time someone says your bank is safe."