A second bank sank.(Eastern)

North Carolina went 16 years between bank failures. But it has had two within two months this year, both in Wilmington. In mid-June, federal and state regulators shut down Cooperative Bankshares Inc., the parent company of Cooperative Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sold most of the assets to Troy-based First Bancorp, and Cooperative's 24 offices reopened as First Bank branches. In April, regulators closed Cape Fear Bank Corp. and sold its assets to Charleston, S.C.-based First Financial Holdings Inc. (Regional Report, May) Why two failures in Wilmington? N.C. State University economist Mike Walden isn't sure. "Maybe it was just a fluke that there were two banks there that made management and investment errors." But he notes that coastal North Carolina had the biggest jump in values during the real-estate boom, which means it also had farther to fall.

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