(A previously published version of this story misstated the total amount of Whitman, Colfax, Washington loans contained in the FDIC’s LLC as $5.4 billion. Rather, Thomas Galli has represented different private equity funds to close on 10 of the last 15 commercial real estate and land loan portfolios in FDIC structured transactions, with an aggregate unpaid principal balance of approximately $5.4 billion.)

NEW YORK CITY-After the Bank of Whitman, Colfax, Washington was closed August 5, 2011 by the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, regulators appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver.

Now, following a bidding process, the FDIC has completed the sale of a 25% initial equity stake in a limited liability company it formed to hold the failed bank’s loans. The portfolio has an aggregated unpaid principal balance of $101 million and is primarily located in Washington, Idaho and Utah.

Thomas Galli, a shareholder in the DC office of Greenberg Traurig, represented the purchaser, Mariner Real Estate Partners III. It bought the 25% stake for $13.6 million in cash and will provide for the management, servicing and ultimate disposition of the loans involved, according to a statement from the FDIC.

“I expect the number and size of loan portfolio sales by the FDIC in 2012 will replicate the number and size on which it executed in 2011,” Galli tells GlobeSt.com. He adds that he expects the volume of loan sales by banks this year to increase significantly.

“As banks increasingly realize profits,” he says, “they will be able to absorb losses from write-downs on loan portfolios they elect to sell.” This, he adds, will in turn enable the banks to sell more loans.

The Investor Match Program was launched in September 2011. An FDIC spokesperson tells GlobeSt.com that the program is a more wide-ranging version of the Small Investor Program, which the agency developed in 2010. It aims to “encourage small investors and asset managers to partner with larger investors to participate in the FDIC’s structured transaction sales for loans and other assets from failed banks,” the FDIC said in a statement when the program was launched. Of special interest are minority and women-owned firms.

Leawood, KA-based Mariner is a minority-owned business and was among nine groups that submitted bids. The Bank of Whitman will retain the remaining 75% equity interest until all equity is returned, after which the FDIC’s interest will decrease to 50% and the private owner interest will increase to 50%.