WASHINGTON, June 20 (QNA) - US State and federal regulators shuttered community banks in Georgia, North Carolina, and Kansas on Friday as lenders in the Southeast and Midwest continue to face severe strain from the rough economy, according to the Wall Street Journal. The failures of Southern Community Bank in Fayetteville, Ga., Cooperative Bank in Wilmington, N.C., and First National Bank of Anthony in Anthony, Kan. brought the total number of collapsed banks in 2009 to 40,the newspaper said. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. FDIC estimated that the failures would cost its deposit insurance fund $363 million. The rate of bank failures has accelerated in 2009 as the 18-month-old recession continues. There were 25 failures in all of 2008 and just three in 2007. (QNA)