| Regulators issued six enforcement actions to commercial banks and savings banks in January, as of information available March 13, SNL Financial said today in a recent analysis.
According to SNL, this was among the lowest number of issuances during the month since the beginning of the credit crisis. In 2007, federal regulators issued two severe enforcement actions in January, increasing to a peak of 69 in 2010 and declining to four issued in 2014.
The number of banks and thrifts operating under severe enforcement actions declined to 436 as of data available mid-March, from 468 at the end of 2014 and 662 at the end of 2013 amid improving credit quality and capital levels and continued M&A activity, SNL said.
Five of the severe enforcement actions were publicized since SNL’s last analysis in February. All of the currently operating institutions that received issuances in January were small community banks with less than $500 million in assets.
As of mid-March, SNL said, JPMorgan Chase Bank was operating under seven severe enforcement actions, while Bank of America was under five, Citibank four and Wells Fargo Bank two.
With 44 banks and thrifts operating under a severe enforcement action as of March 13, Georgia was home to the most of any state, followed by Illinois and Florida at 40 and 38, respectively. Rhode Island was the most affected proportionally, with four of its 10 banks under severe enforcement actions. Sage Bank in Lowell was listed among the 15 most recent severe enforcement actions SNL compiled.
Banks and thrifts headquartered in New Hampshire, Vermont, Idaho, Alaska, Nebraska and Washington, D.C., were free of severe enforcement actions as of March 13.
