FDIC notches 3 more bank failures

WASHINGTON » Regulators shut down two small banks in Florida and one in Colorado on Friday, bringing to 58 the number of U.S. bank failures this year, well behind last year’s pace.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Southshore Community Bank in Apollo Beach, Fla.; LandMark Bank of Florida in Sarasota, Fla.; and Bank of Choice in Greeley, Colo.

Southshore Community Bank had about $46.3 million in assets and $45.3 million in deposits. LandMark Bank had about $275 million in assets and $246.7 million in deposits. That lifts to nine the number of lenders to collapse this year in Florida.

In Colorado, Bank of Choice had roughly $1.07 billion in assets and $924.9 million in deposits. It is the fifth bank to fail this year in Colo­rado.

The failures are expected to cost the deposit insurance fund a combined $331.4 million.

14 billionaires executed in China

China executed 14 people with assets of at least 1 billion yuan ($155 million) during the past eight years as the government expanded its fight against corruption, according to the New Culture News newspaper.

The dead include Yuan Baojing, a former stockbroker executed by lethal injection in 2006 for the murder of a man who tried to blackmail him, according to the report. Wang Zhendong, chairman of the Yingkou Donghua Trading Group, was executed in 2008 for a scheme that persuaded investors to buy and breed ants, the report said.

The newspaper, based in the northern city of Changchun, said it surveyed media reports over the past eight years to compile the data. China’s government is waging a corruption crackdown that resulted in the punishment of 146,517 people last year, the official Xinhua News Agency reported in June.

China boasts 1,900 yuan billionaires, double the number from 2009, according to the 2010 Hurun Wealth Report.

MAKING CENTS

Venture-cap investments increase

SAN FRANCISCO » Venture capitalists invested more in U.S. startups in the second quarter than they did during the same period a year ago, suggesting that investors are ramping up their search for the next Facebook or Twitter.

In the April-June period, startup investments climbed 5 percent to $7.5 billion, up from $7.2 billion in the year-ago quarter, according to a recent study. That funding went to 966 startups — down 3 percent from the 998 startups that received funding in the second quarter of 2010, but up 19 percent from the 814 that were funded in the first three months of the year.

The study is conducted each quarter by the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers, and is based on data from Thomson Reuters.

Total recall

» About 40,000 Homelite surface cleaner attachments are being recalled that were manufactured by Homelite Consumer Products Inc. of Anderson, S.C., and sold exclusively at Home Depot stores nationwide from February 2010 through June 2011. The surface cleaner attachments were manufactured in China. They were sold separately and, with Homelite pressure washers, used to clean flat surfaces such as decks, patios and driveways. The surface cleaner attachment’s nozzle and spray bar can break and detach, striking and possibly breaking the plastic housing. A broken nozzle, spray bar or housing could strike someone using the washer, possibly causing cuts. Call 800-867-9624 or visit www.homelite.com or www.cpsc.gov.

Coming up

» Today: Bank of Hawaii Corp. and Netflix Inc. report quarterly financial results after the market closes.

» Tuesday: Standard & Poor’s releases S&P/Case-Shiller index of home prices for May. Central Pacific Financial Corp., Amazon.com Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. report quarterly financial results.

» Wednesday: Commerce Department releases durable goods for June. Hawaiian Holdings (Hawaiian Airlines’ parent), Visa Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc. report quarterly financial results.

» Thursday: Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

» Friday: Commerce Department releases second-quarter gross domestic product.