Eight more banks failed last week, bringing the 2010 total to 50. Three of the failures were in Florida, and two were in California. Massachusetts, Michigan and Washington had one bank failure each.

In Florida, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation took over Riverside National Bank, First Federal Bank of North Florida and AmericanFirst Bank. TD Bank Financial Group a division of Canadian company TD Bank (TD) took the deposits and nearly all the assets of each. Riverside National had $3.4 billion in assets, with First Federal at $393.3 million and AmericanFirst at $90.5 million.

Three more banks failed last week, bringing 2010's total to 25. Already, this year's bank failures have matched the 2008 full-year total and exceeded the 2007 amount by a factor of greater than eight. The three regional banks that failed last week were in Florida, Illinois and Maryland, with close to a billion dollars in aggregate assets. According to the FDIC, the pace of bank failures could be set to accelerate in the next few months.

Sun American Bank, in Boca Raton, was taken over by the FDIC, with First-Citizens Bank & Trust, based in Raleigh, N.C., assuming the Florida banks assets and almost all of its deposits. Sun American had assets of $535.7 million and $443.5 million in deposits. Since July, First-Citizens has acquired the assets of four failed banks, the others being First Regional Bank of Los Angeles, Venture Ban (Lacey, Wash.) and Temecula Valley Bank (Temecula, Calif.).

Not even two months into 2010, the number of banks closed this year has already reached 20, not far behind the full-year result of 25 in 2008 and ahead of the three in 2007. On Friday, four banks were shut down by regulators, carrying forward the momentum from 2009's 140 bank failures. In only one week, the number of bank failures this year spiked 25%.

La Jolla Bank FSB in California was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It had 10 branches, $3.6 billion in assets and $2.8 billion in deposits. Its deposits and assets were taken over by OneWest Bank in Pasadena in a deal that is expected to cost the insurance fund $882.3 million. OneWest and the FDIC will share the losses on failed bank loans and other assets of approximately $3.3 billion.

After seeing the number of bank failures tick up to 140 last year, there's some slight comfort in seeing the annual total only reach four. The feeling of relief disappears, of course, when you realize that we're only two weeks into 2010. The effects of the late 2008 financial crisis are still with us, as three small banks learned this week -- in Illinois, Minnesota and Utah. As expected, the 2009 trend continues. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's takeover of the banks follows the closure of the much larger Horizon Bank in Bellingham, Wash., the week before.

U.S. banking regulators took over six more banks on Friday, bringing the 2009 bank failure tally to 130. So, even with the post-financial crisis situation stabilizing a year later, the continued stream of bank failures serves as a stark reminder that we aren't out of the woods yet. Smaller banks are expected to continue to fail at an higher rate through next year, due in large part to the pressures of deteriorating loans.

Of course, unemployment will continue to be a problem, as it impairs the abilities of borrowers to repay their debts. The squeeze appears to be lightening, as job cuts slowed considerably in November, but the unemployment rate is nonetheless expected to peak next year.