Oregon Public Broadcasting

The five branches of the Home Valley Bank in Josephine County opened their doors under a new banner Monday -- the South Valley Bank and Trust.

Home Valley was closed Friday evening after the feds figured out developers couldn't pay back loans they'd taken out to buy land and build houses.

South Valley Bank and Trust won a competitive bidding process to assume those troubled assets and Home Valley's customers.

David Barr with the FDIC, says it paid off a percentage of the home loans so South Valley doesn't suffer the same fate as Home Valley.

David Barr: "We have extensive experience with assets from failed banks. When you've had more than 270 banks fail in not even a three year period, you get a pretty quick handle on what the true value of those assets are."

Seven banks were seized on Friday -- in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Kansas, Nevada, Minnesota and Oregon -- that makes 103 so far this year.

The pace is well ahead of last year. 2009 saw the highest number of bank seizures since the savings and loan crisis of 1992.