A story in the Wall Street Journal today says that there is a “storm raging unabated” in Georgia. It points to the fact that the state is home to only four percent of the nation’s banks and 20 percent of the bank failures since August of last year.
According to the article, bankers and lawmakers estimate that 30 more banks in Georgia are at risk of failing.
At fault, according to the article, are the risky real estate loans that the banks financed while fighting for a share of the marketplace. The state had 334 banks at the end of 2008, not counting branches of banks chartered elsewhere like Bank of America or Wells Fargo. That ranks Georgia third in the nation in number of banks.
More bank failures on the horizon may mean more financial woes for the people of Georgia. More personal bankruptcies may be on the way for Atlanta, since most of the bank failures in the state have been centered on the metro area.
