Illinois regulators Friday brought the shutters down on Bank of Lincolnwood, bringing the number of failed banks to 37 so far this year, which will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s deposit insurance fund $83-million.

FDIC says the Lincolnwood, Illinois based bank's two offices reopen Saturday as branches of Republic Bank of Chicago, and customers will be allowed to retain their deposit insurance coverage.

With total assets of $214-million and total deposits of $202-million as of late last month, Republic Bank has agreed to purchase about $162-million of Bank of Lincolnwood's assets, leaving $52-million for the FDIC to sell.

In his statement, William Sperling, President and Chief Executive of Republic Bank made it clear the new customers could expect their insured and uninsured deposits to remain safe and covered.

The two banks are expected to be integrated by the end-October, with the Republic Bank preserving jobs despite a difficult economic environment.

With an average of 7-failures per month, the number of bank failures in 2009 have already exceeded last year's total of 25, costing the FDIC a total of $11.4-billion, compared with $17.6-billion in 2008.

The FDIC expects roughly $70-billion in losses over the next 5-years, due to the failures of insured institutions.

Funded primarily by fees paid by banks, FDIC, which insures individual deposits up to $250,000, increased the amount from last year's $100,000, in response to concerns about the stability of the nation's banks.

The FDIC also confirmed no buyer has been found for buying the assets of wholesale banking operator Silverton Bank, the fifth largest bank failure during the current recession in terms of assets, and which cost the FDIC $1.3-billion.