Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Investors including private-equity firms may find it easier to acquire U.S. banks after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said it will let groups without charters bid for the deposits and assets of failing lenders.

The FDIC change, announced in a press release today, will help ensure “failing institutions are resolved in a manner that will result in the least cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund” by marketing assets to “known, qualified and interested bidders.”

U.S. regulators this year have seized 22 banks, the most since 1993, amid a credit crunch that fueled more than $968 billion in financial-company losses and writedowns since 2007. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Nov. 21 granted a new type of national bank charter called a “shelf charter,” also designed to find buyers for failed lenders.

“This is the government being flexible,” said William Sweet, a partner in the Washington office of law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. “They simply are trying to accommodate the interest by investors and the need for capital.”

Banks categorized as “problem” institutions grew by 46 percent in the third quarter to 171, the FDIC said yesterday. The new OCC charter grants applicants access to the list and enables them to submit bids for those lenders.

The first 18-month conditional charter was granted to Ford Group Holdings Inc., an investment group headed by billionaire Gerald J. Ford. Ford has access to $1.38 billion in capital to buy assets and deposits from the FDIC, according to the OCC.

Fed Membership

Those granted preliminary approval must apply for Federal Reserve membership and seek FDIC insurance. Final approval is given after the OCC signs off on the business plan, management team and capital available, the OCC said.

Regulations limiting the activities of investors have kept buyout firms from pursuing bank deals. Private-equity firms, which have taken a hit on recent bank investments, may invest more after the rule changes, said Sean Ryan, an analyst at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc. in New York.

“We still don’t know how thorough the vetting process will be,” Ryan said. “The change definitely opens up banks to a broader range of investors, especially private-equity.”

Carlyle Group

Carlyle Group, the Washington-based private-equity firm, in July said it invested $75 million in Boston Private Financial Holdings, a publicly traded wealth manager. Carlyle, which has more than $89 billion in assets under management, hired Olivier Sarkozy from UBS AG this year to help run its financial-services investment group. They also added Christopher Dodds, a former chief financial officer of Charles Schwab & Co., to advise on financial services deals.

Other potential investors include co-called special purpose acquisition companies, or blank-check firms. SPACs raise a pool of capital in order to merge with or acquire another firm.

Earlier this month, Community Bank, a four-branch lender based in Loganville, Georgia, was taken over and sold to a unit of Community Bankers Trust Corp., a SPAC formed in 2005 to buy a bank, a report from law firm Jones Day said.

“This may indicate that the FDIC is experiencing difficulties in finding local and traditional buyers of failed banks,” the report said.

Wilbur Ross

Private-equity firm CapGen Financial Group’s September investment in PacWest Bancorp helped the Rancho Santa Fe, California-based lender buy Security Pacific Bank from the FDIC.

“PacWest is a good example of the opportunities strong management teams have in conjunction with private-equity investors to expand in a disrupted market with few bank acquirers,” a Nov. 8 Jones Day report said.

Billionaire Wilbur Ross, chairman of New York-based W.L. Ross & Co. said in October he is “very interested” in buying regional banks as a stable source of deposits.

J.C. Flowers & Co. raised $2.5 billion for a buyout fund that targets banks and other financial firms. In August, J. Christopher Flowers the founder of the firm, won approval to buy First National Bank of Cainesville in rural Missouri.

The bank, located near the Iowa border in a town of 400 people, has $14 million in assets and could be used as a vehicle to buy other troubled or failing institutions.

“As some of the larger institutions fill their dance cards with acquisitions, the private-equity and other investors will become an important source of capital for those transactions,” Skadden’s Sweet said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Keehner in New York jkeehner@bloomberg.net; Elizabeth Hester in New York at ehester@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 26, 2008 16:25 EST