Regulators seize two Florida banks

The Office of Thrift Supervision seized a pair of Florida banks, as well as one in Oregon. After the seizure, First State Bank and Community National Bank of Sarasota County, both based in Sarasota, were taken over by Stearns Bank of St. Cloud, Minn., which has assumed control of other failed banks under the auspices of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Florida has the fourth-highest number of bank failures in the country behind Georgia, Illinois and California. Troubled real estate loans are a cause of the bank failures.