It’s become almost like clockwork. On Friday night, after the network news is over, you can check the FDIC web site to see which, if any, banks closed this week.
Tonight it was Columbian Bank of Topeka, Kansas. With less than a billion dollars in assets, it is considered a small bank, but was recently the 17th largest bank in Kansas. Its nine locations, most in Topeka, have been taken over by Citizens Bank of Chillicothe, Missouri.
The failure is blamed on a run of bad loans and a general decline in business at the bank, probably partly related to the recession.
As notable as the bank failure itself is the muted nature of the news coverage. The story is being dutifully reported, but I had to go to the Kansas City Star to find a news site that is treating it as a top story. This is in keeping with the axiom in news reporting that when something just keeps happening, it eventually isn’t very newsy anymore.
