Jul. 21--What Illinois bank failure so far in 2009 has been the most costly to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.?

For sheer dollars, that would be Worth-based Founders Bank, which had $962.5 million in loans and other assets when on July 2 it became the 12th Illinois bank to collapse this year.

The FDIC estimates that the cost of Founders' demise to its insurance fund will be $188.5 million -- about 20 percent of the bank's assets.

But a case could be made that a bigger fiasco was the June 5 failure of $214 million-asset Bank of Lincolnwood.

The FDIC estimates that its death will cost the insurance fund $83 million -- 39 percent of Lincolnwood's assets.

Year to date, total estimated losses to the FDIC for all 57 U.S. bank failures are $12.7 billion on $42 billion in total bank assets, according to a report from Keefe Bruyette & Woods. That's a 30 percent loss rate.

Of the 12 bank failures in Illinois year to date, the lowest estimated loss to the FDIC's insurance fund as a percentage of the failed bank's assets range is 14 percent at $166 million-asset First National Bank of Danville, KBW found.

Money matters: Charles Moore, president of Chicago-based Banc Funds Co., isn't one to procrastinate when it comes to sharing his two cents with the FDIC.

The insurance fund is seeking feedback for how it should regulate private equity firms' acquisitions of failed banks, and Moore is the second of four parties that so far have sent suggestions to the FDIC before the Aug. 10 comment deadline.

Since 1986, Banc Funds has invested mostly in community banks, having made dozens of investments over the years in which it owned 5 percent to 9 percent of the company.

"It's important to note that the pool of bank investors in the United States is not homogenous and the pool of private equity investors is not homogenous," Moore wrote.

He told the FDIC that investors owning less than 9.9 percent of a bank shouldn't be subject to any new FDIC standards governing private firms' stakes in banks.

According to a May 11 Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Banc Funds currently has interests in about 200 institutions, including Itasca-based First Midwest Bancorp Inc., Chicago-based MB Financial Inc. and Melrose Park-based Midwest Banc Holdings Inc.

Practice launched: Commercial lender Monroe Capital LLC of Chicago made two hires for its new Monroe Credit Advisors LLC arm, which helps mid-market firms find financing.

They're Mark Gertzof, former Merrill Lynch Capital managing director, and Christopher Gentry, former Concord Financial Advisors director. Monroe Credit will use its contacts with hundreds of traditional and specialty finance firms to help clients find capital.

Monroe Capital's own deals include a $39 million credit pact with CIT Healthcare LLC related to the 2008 acquisition of MedPlast Inc. by Baird Capital Partners. It also set up a Sharia'h compliant $40.5 million credit facility for the 2007 acquisition of a California manufacturer by Chicago-based private equity firm UIB Capital, a unit of Bahrain-based Unicorn Investment Bank.

byerak@tribune.com

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