This Week's Busted Banks

Missouri's American Sterling Bank makes 24 closed banks in 2009. We had 25 in all of 2008.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said Missouri-based American Sterling had $181 million in assets and $171.9 million in deposits. The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $42 million.

The Missouri offices of American Sterling will reopen on Saturday, and the offices in California and Arizona will reopen on Monday as branches of Metcalf Bank, which is assuming all the deposits of American Sterling.

Customers can access their money over the weekend by check, teller machine or debit card, the FDIC said.

In 2008, 25 U.S. banks were seized by officials, up from only 3 in 2007.

During the current financial crisis, Seattle-based lender Washington Mutual became the biggest bank to fail in U.S. history. It was closed in September while suffering from losses from soured mortgages and liquidity problems.

The FDIC will insure up to $250,000 per account through 2009 and in individual retirement accounts at insured banks.

Many more banks will fail over the next several months and years as the industry consolidates. Or in this case, the government sponsored survivors eat the losers.

[UPDATE] And we've hit 25 with Great Basin Bank of Nevada.