Closed Friday, April 30, 2010 · Mayaguez, Puerto Rico
Westernbank Puerto Rico
By total assets Westernbank Puerto Rico is the 17th-largest of the 3,375 bank failures since 1934 for which the FDIC records a size, counted in dollars of the day. No bank in Puerto Rico had failed for 18 years, since Banco Nacional, National Association closed in 1992. Westernbank Puerto Rico was the largest of the 157 bank failures in 2010.
On the books, 2002 to 2010
Total assets peaked at $18.0 billion in the third quarter of 2007 and were 40% lower at the final report. Equity capital went from 5.7% of assets in the second quarter of 2002 to 3.5% at the last report. By then 19% of its loans were 90 days or more past due or no longer accruing interest. It reported a net loss in four of its final nine reporting years. The deepest annual loss, $482 million, was booked in 2009.* 2010: January to March only, the last report before closing.
Size against the other 2010 failures
Total assets of each 2010 failure, log scale; Westernbank Puerto Rico in red.
No failed bank in Puerto Rico was larger, of 12 on record there since 1934. Across the failures of 2010, the median estimated loss came to 21% of assets. Its estimated cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund makes it the 11th-costliest failure on FDIC record since 1934. The next-largest failure of that year was R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico of Hato Rey, Puerto Rico ($5.7 billion, loss 17% of assets). Every 2010 failure in the explorer.
Regulators closed seven banks that day. The largest of the others was R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico of Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, at $5.7 billion.
Failures in Puerto Rico
It was one of three banks in Puerto Rico to fail in 2010. The next was Doral Bank of San Juan, on February 27, 2015. The municipality of Mayaguez has 2 failed banks on FDIC record since 1934. The other: Banco de Ahorro, F.S.B. (1986).