The FDIC was unable to find buyers for two banks — Centennial Bank in Ogden, Utah, and Waterfield Bank of Germantown, Maryland — according to statements posted on the agencys Web site. In the largest of yesterdays failures by assets, Boca Raton, Florida-based Sun American Bank was purchased by First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co.
“South Florida is a great market for our company, especially with our focus on individuals, small- to mid-sized businesses and the medical community,” Frank B. Holding Jr., chief executive officer of First-Citizens, said - - - - >

Oil increased 1.6 percent after the Labor Department reported that payrolls dropped 36,000 last month. The total was forecast to fall by 68,000, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. U.S. fuel use, averaged over the past four weeks, was 3 percent higher than a year earlier, an Energy Department report showed on March 3.
“We had a nice spike up on the jobless report,” said Addison Armstrong, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
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OneWest Bank purchased La Jolla Banks $3.6 billion in assets, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was named receiver. Banks in Florida, Texas and Illinois also collapsed yesterday, for a total cost to the agencys deposit- insurance fund of almost $1.1 billion, the FDIC said in statements on its Web site.
Pasadena, California-based OneWest, led by former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Steven Mnuchin, assumed most operations of First Federal Bank of California in December last year. In yesterdays transaction, OneWest assumed $2.8 billion in - - - - >

Central bankers are planning to eventually remove $1.43 trillion of housing debt from the balance sheet after critics such as Stanford University economist John Taylor accused them of straying beyond monetary policy. Philadelphia Fed President Charles Plosser said yesterday that the Feds purchases of housing debt expose it to demands from politicians to support other industries.
Some of the Feds emergency actions “blurred the line between monetary policy and fiscal policy, thereby increasing the risk to the Feds independence,” Plosser said in a speech. “These policies have - - - - >

The purchase may be announced as early as today, said the people yesterday, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc was forced to sell its stake in Sempra by the European Union after receiving a 45.5 billion-pound ($71 billion) taxpayer-funded bailout.
JPMorgan is continuing discussions with RBS and Sempra about acquiring the North American operations of the commodities and energy trader, one of the people said. Representatives for Edinburgh-based RBS, JPMorgan and Sempra declined to comment. - - - - >

As much as 95 percent will be paid in stock vesting over about three years, the person said. Those receiving the smallest bonuses will get about half their compensation in cash, paid later this month, the person said. The unit accounts for 10,000 people, or 4 percent of the banks 283,000 workers.
Bank of America, the target of political wrath for its acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. even as the faltering Wall Street firm handed out $3.6 billion of employee bonuses, reaped a $6.3 billion profit - - - - >

First Citizens acquired First Regional Bank of Los Angeles, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a statement on its Web site. Six lenders with total assets of $5.53 billion failed, according to the FDIC.
“This is a perfect extension for our company,” Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for First Citizens, said in a phone interview from Raleigh, North Carolina. Southern California “is an area we have been in with our subsidiary bank and we see a lot of potential in that market.”
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The government had details on both the suspected bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and plans by an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Yemen to strike U.S. targets, Obama said. He blamed a breakdown in intelligence-sharing among agencies. The plot was foiled when the explosives failed to ignite and passengers and crew aboard the flight on Dec. 25 took action.
“The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack,” Obama said at the White House yesterday after meeting with senior advisers. “This - - - - >

Exxon agreed to buy XTO Energy in an all-stock deal at a 25 percent premium, showing how eagerly a company that is among the most conservative in a conservative industry is jumping into the market for natural gas.
As negotiators haggled in Copenhagen over a global plan to curb carbon emissions, the deal suggested Exxon sees change coming for an energy source best known now for heating homes.
The deal announced Monday was also the largest for the U.S. energy sector in at least four years and Exxons biggest acquisition since it bought Mobil Corp. for $75 billion in 1999.
The technology to - - - - >

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke made the comments in an Op-Ed piece to appear in Sundays Washington Post, five days before the Senate Banking committee holds a hearing on his nomination for a second term. His current four-year term expires Jan. 31.
Bernanke wrote the nation is challenged to design a financial oversight system that will “embody the lessons of the past two years and provide a robust framework for preventing future crises and the economic damage they cause.”
But two proposals being considered “are very much out of step with the global consensus on the appropriate role of central banks, and - - - - >