WASHINGTON – Regulators Friday closed a small bank based in Crestview, Fla., boosting to 91 the number of bank failures in the U.S. this year.

The number of closures has fallen sharply this year as banks have worked their way through the bad debt accumulated in the recession. By this time last year, regulators had shuttered 157 banks.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. seized Premier Community Bank of the Emerald Coast, with $126 million in assets and $112 million in deposits.

The failure of Premier Community Bank is expected to cost the FDIC $31.2 million.

Florida has been one of the states hit hardest by bank failures. Regulators closed 29 banks in Florida in 2010. Premier Community Bank’s failure brought to 13 the number of Florida lenders shut down this year

California, Georgia and Illinois also have seen large numbers of bank failures.

In all of 2010, regulators seized 157 banks, the most in any year since the savings and loan crisis two decades ago. Those failures cost around $23 billion. The FDIC has said 2010 likely was the high-water mark for Great Recession bank failures.

In 2009, there were 140 bank failures that cost the insurance fund about $36 billion, a higher price tag than in 2010 because the banks involved were bigger on average. Twenty-five banks failed in 2008, the year the financial crisis struck with force; only three were closed in 2007.