Federal regulators shut two banks in Florida, one in California

? Regulators shut down two banks in Florida and one in California on Friday, boosting to 123 the number of U.S. bank failures this year as loan defaults rise in the worst financial climate in decades.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over Orion Bank, based in Naples, Fla., with about $2.7 billion in assets and $2.1 billion in deposits, and Sarasota-based Century Bank, with $728 million in assets and $631 million in deposits.

Pacific Coast National Bank in San Clemente, Calif. was also shut down. It had $134.4 million in assets and $130.9 million in deposits.

IberiaBank, based in Lafayette, La., agreed to assume all of Orion Bank’s deposits and $2.4 billion of its assets, as well as Century Bank’s deposits and $706 million of its assets. The FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale.

In addition, the FDIC and IberiaBank agreed to share losses on roughly $1.9 billion of Orion Bank’s loans and other assets, and on about $656 million of Century Bank’s.

Orion Bank’s 23 branches will reopen today as offices of IberiaBank. Century Bank’s 11 branches will reopen during normal business hours, starting today, also as IberiaBank.

Tustin, Calif.-based Sunwest Bank agreed to assume all of Pacific Coast National Bank’s deposits and essentially all of its assets.

Pacific Coast National Bank’s two branches will reopen Monday as branches of Sunwest Bank.

The failure of Pacific Coast National Bank will cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $27.4 million. Orion Bank’s will cost $615 million, while Century Bank’s failure will cost $344 million.

As the economy has soured, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the federal deposit insurance fund. It has fallen into the red.

To replenish the fund, the FDIC on Thursday mandated the roughly 8,100 insured banks and savings institutions pay about $45 billion in premiums in advance that would have been due over the next three years.

The idea is for banks to spread the costs over three years rather than paying a one-time fee that would deplete their capital reserves.

The FDIC expects the cost of bank failures to grow to about $100 billion over the next four years.