Bank Epraim - Bank Gagalna Efraim, UT - Episode 338

**Freesia Brindski** (0:01)
Good afternoon, good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining me. This is the podcast, The Endurance of Labor Laws. I'm your lovely host, Freesia Brindisi. Today is episode 338, and we're going to take a look at another failed bank. But before we dive in, let me give a big shout out to my listeners, because as usual, you guys are awesome. So a big shout out to Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Pennsylvania, and New York. In terms of countries, the United States, Vietnam, Singapore, and the United Kingdom. So here we go into this lovely episode. Again, we are looking directly at the FDIC.gov website. We are taking a look at failed banks within the United States. And maybe after we get done with this list, we will take a look at failed banks overseas, especially in the European Union, because a lot of those banks do business over here. And some of our banks, not all of our banks, but a few of our banks do business overseas. But I would think that typically other countries prefer to do business with us, as opposed to us doing business with them, because we have a more stable country and we have a more stable currency. So that's just kind of how that is. But in terms of the bank, we're gonna take a look at, we're taking a look at the Bank of Ephraim, and that's E-P-H-R-A-I-M.
This one was located in Ephraim, Utah. The bank that acquired them is Far West Bank.
Bank of Ephraim failed June 25th, 2004, so we're moving right along through the year of 2004 In terms of the background information regarding this bank failure, the FDIC.gov website says, on June 25th, 2004, Bank of Ephraim, of Ephraim, Utah, was closed under a court order. Wow, that's serious. Sought by the Commissioner of the Utah Department of Financial Institutions, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC was named receiver. As receiver, the FDIC is charged with winding up the business affairs of the failed financial institution. This includes the disposition of assets and liabilities of the failed financial institution, and payment of dividends to approved creditors in order of priority. Again, if you're not an approved creditor, you're not going to get paid. And if you're not considered a priority in terms of the order of priority, you're probably not going to get your money. It goes on to say the FDIC as receiver has taken all necessary actions to conclude the affairs of the failed financial institution, made all dividend distributions as required by law, and the receivership of state is deemed terminated. Now again, if something is not required by law, they're not going to do it. Like the FDIC, well, let me put it this way, the federal government is not going to do something, and this also applies to state governments. They are not going to do things out of the goodness of their heart. They're only going to do what they have to do that is legal, that they are legally required to do. So they're not going to go above and beyond the call of duty, so to speak. That's just kind of how government agencies work, and how they facilitate doing their job, which is not going above and beyond what they could do, so to speak, to help people.
It says, the FDIC has issued a press release about the institution's closure. If you represent a media outlet and would like information about the closure, please contact the FDIC Public Affairs Office at 202-898-6993.
I do have the press release for this one. So again, this is an immediate press release that was released June 25th in 2004 Again, this was released from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, also known as FDIC. It says the media contact for this one is Rosemary George, telephone number 202-898-6530.
It says FDIC approves the assumption of the insured deposits of Bank of Ephraim of Ephraim, Utah. The Board of Directors of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, also known as FDIC, approve the assumption of the insured deposits of Bank of Ephraim of Ephraim, Utah by Far West Bank Provo, Utah. The Bank of Ephraim with total assets of approximately $46.4 million was closed by the Utah Commissioner of Financial Institutions and the FDIC was named receiver. Far West Bank has agreed to assume approximately $40.4 million of insured deposits of the failed bank. That's quite a bit. They are taking on a huge financial risk, so God bless them for doing that. They must have seen something good come out of this in order to put their neck out on the line for this. At the time of closure, Bank of Ephraim had approximately $4.8 million in deposits in 125 accounts that exceeded the Federal Deposit Insurance Limit. Three of the failed banks for offices will reopen, so one of them is not going to reopen. They are going to reopen as branches of Far West Bank. Deposit customers of Bank of Ephraim will automatically become depositors of the Assuming Bank. All depositors will continue to have immediate access to their insured funds.