FDIC shuts down another bank, ships its deposits to Jersey. LibertyPointe was ordered to cease and desist with the excessively risky lending back in August, but, as is typical, regulators stepped in way too late to stop the bank from eventually boarding the failboat. (LP’s nonaccruing loans were about 3x its loss reserves at that point.)

LibertyPointe is moderately unique in one way – their fail was concentrated mostly in commercial real estate – and more unique in another way, in that they had to be shut down a day early to respect the Sabbath:

Regulators on Thursday shut down LibertyPointe Bank in New York City, boosting to 27 the number of bank failures in the U.S. so far this year following the 140 brought down in 2009 by mounting loan defaults and the recession.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over LibertyPointe, with three branches, $209.7 million in assets and $209.5 million in deposits. The bank catered largely to the Orthodox Jewish community in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Valley National Bank, based in Wayne, N.J., agreed to assume the assets and deposits of LibertyPointe Bank.

In addition, the FDIC and Valley National Bank agreed to share losses on $181.5 million of LibertyPointe’s loans and other assets.

The bank was closed by New York state’s banking regulators and the FDIC appointed as receiver on Thursday, rather than on Friday as is customary for bank shutdowns because of the Jewish Sabbath falling at sundown Friday into Saturday.

Many of LibertyPointe’s employees are observant Orthodox Jews who don’t work on the Sabbath; the FDIC’s process for failed banks requires bank employees to work with agency staff in the days following the closure to facilitate the transition.

Walter: Banks don’t fail on Shabbos!

But, they do fail if their balance sheets get over the line. Mark it zero!

FDIC will eat it to the tune of about $24.8 million on this one. How many more fails do you think we’ll get this weekend?