Small Kansas bank is 9th failure this year

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank regulators closed Columbian Bank and Trust Company on Friday, the ninth U.S. bank to fail this year as the weakening economy and falling home prices take their toll on financial institutions.

Customers can access their money over the weekend by check, teller machine or debit card, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said.

Citizens Bank and Trust has agreed to assume the failed bank's insured deposits. Columbian Bank and Trust's branches will reopen on Monday as branches of Citizens Bank and Trust, which is based in Chillicothe, Missouri.

The FDIC said Columbian Bank and Trust of Topeka, Kansas, had $752 million in assets, $622 million in deposits, and nine branches.

The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $60 million.

The FDIC oversees an industry-funded reserve used to insure up to $100,000 per account and $250,000 per individual retirement account at insured banks.

The biggest bank failure this year was IndyMac, seized by regulators on July 11. IndyMac had $32 billion in assets and $19 billion in deposits as of March. It was the third-largest bank insolvency in U.S. history.

Columbian Bank is the first bank to fail in Kansas since Midland Bank of Kansas in Mission, Kansas, on April 2, 1993, the FDIC said.

The FDIC said that as of June 30 Columbian Bank had about $46 million in uninsured deposits held in about 610 accounts that potentially exceeded insurance limits.

The failed bank also had about $268 million in brokered deposits that are not part of Friday's transaction. The FDIC said it would pay the brokers directly for the amount of their insured funds.

The FDIC has a list of problem banks that its examiners closely monitor. The regulator does not name institutions on the list, but at the end of the first quarter 90 were on it.

The FDIC is expected to update the list this month for the second quarter.

(Reporting by Karey Wutkowski and Diane Bartz; Editing by Andre Grenon)