Stearns Bank of St. Cloud picks up a sixth failed bank

Stearns Bank of St. Cloud resumed its buying spree of failed banks, snatching up an Arizona community bank closed late Friday by regulators.

Stearns, a $1.2 billion bank with six branches in Minnesota, agreed late Friday to acquire the much-smaller Copper State Bank of Scottsdale, Ariz., which has three branches and $204 million in assets.

The deal is Stearns' sixth acquisition of a failed bank since the financial crisis began more than two years ago. Stearns also bought Horizon Bank of Pine City in June of 2009, as well as failed banks in Georgia and Florida. Stearns already has one branch in Scottsdale.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., a federal agency that insures deposits, said Stearns agreed to pay a 1 percent premium to assume all the deposits of Copper State. Stearns and the FDIC will share in the losses on $165.2 million of Copper State's assets.

The FDIC estimates the cost to the insurance fund for the transaction will be $43.6 million.