State regulators closed Metropolitan Capital Bank & Trust Friday, marking the first bank failure in the United States in 2026 and Chicago’s second in as many years.
The Illinois Dept. of Financial and Professional Regulation ordered the River North-based bank’s closure due to concerns over its financial stability.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named receiver and brokered the sale of most of the bank’s $261 million in assets to First Independence Bank in Detroit, including all deposits. Customers still have immediate access to their money, and loan customers’ payments are still due.
“We want to be clear that no depositor will lose any money as a result of this action,” Susana Soriano, acting director of IDFPR’s Division of Banking, said in a statement.
Soriano cited “unsafe and unsound conditions and an impaired capital position” at Metropolitan Capital, and said the Detroit institution would be “well-positioned to continue essential banking services” for customers.
Metropolitan Capital opened in 2005 and grew clientele across 46 states and 10 countries, with an office at 9 E. Ontario St. and another in New York, according to the bank’s website. Co-founder and president Frank Novel couldn’t be reached for comment.
The institution reported total assets of $261.1 million and $212.1 million in deposits as of Sep. 30, according to the FDIC, which said the failure was estimated to cost its Deposit Insurance Fund about $19.7 million.
It’s the first bank to fail in the U.S. this year. Only two banks tanked nationwide last year — including Chicago’s Pulaski Savings Bank.
Before that came one of the city’s most notorious bank failures: the 2017 collapse of Washington Federal Bank for Savings, following a $140 million Bridgeport embezzlement scheme which led to more than a dozen federal indictments and a four-month prison sentence for former 11th Ward Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson.
Seventy-one Illinois banks have failed since 2000, including 22 in Chicago.
Metropolitan Capital’s River North office will reopen as a branch of First Independence Bank during its normal business hours on Feb. 2. More information is available at (866) 314-1744 and on the FDIC’s website.