Power Breakfast: Bank failure, unemployment, Hartsfield, Coke, NBC, Olympics

AJC reporter Paul Donsky paints an interesting picture today of the Georgian Bank failure.

Wealthy customers helped it grow quickly into one of the state’s largest community banks.

But those same well-heeled clientele, Donsky writes, also turned out to be an Achilles’ heel. They hastened Georgian’s demise when enough of them pulled out their deposits as the enormity of the bank’s problems became clear last summer.

As of last June 30, about 86 percent of its deposits were held in accounts larger than $100,000. The average size of those accounts: $673,000.

In good times, Donsky writes, Georgian’s robust funding base enabled the bank to lend aggressively to builders and developers working in metro Atlanta’s then-booming real estate market.

But having so much money tied up in relatively few depositors also meant that a large amount of cash could leave in a hurry when things go awry. And they did.

One other note: Look for new national unemployment figures today. Economists expect an uptick to 9.8 percent, from 9.7 percent.

Also in the AJC:

• Ad campaigns bring cash to empty stores
• Airport hire new parking management contractor
• Marsh & McLennan to move to new Buckhead tower
• Coke taking audtions through its Facebook page
• Firehouse Subs plans to expand in Atlanta area

In other media:

• Who can take charge at Bank of America?
• In NBC Universal bid, Comcast seeks an empire
• Olympic bids go down to the wire with decision today
• Auto sales fall back as clunker program ends
• Insurance executive pay curbed in health bill
• Japan’s jobless rate falls to 5.5 percent