Bank failures could haunt bankers

Executives and directors of failed banks on the Gulf Coast might soon face another battle: A professional liability lawsuit from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Speculation over the potential for the lawsuits has loomed since the fall, and the FDIC made it official earlier this month. The agency, in a statement, says it authorized lawsuits against 109 former bank executives and directors nationwide, in an attempt to recover $2.5 billion in losses from failed banks.

The FDIC didn't release the names of any executives or directors it plans to sue. The suits will be brought under regulations that allow the agency to sue bank executives and directors for either gross or simple negligence at the bank.

The FDIC has plenty of options when it comes to whom it should sue. The agency seized seven banks on the Gulf Coast in 2010, on top of nine seized in the region in 2009. And the FDIC shuttered 297 banks nationwide since 2009, with bank losses that cost the deposit insurance fund more than $50 billion through 2014.