Regulators have closed a small bank in Georgia, bringing the total number of U.S. bank closures to four for this year after 51 closures in 2012.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Friday that state regulators closed Frontier Bank of LaGrange, Ga. It has nine branches in Georgia and Alabama, and about $258.8 million in assets and $224.1 million in deposits.

HeritageBank of the South has agreed to assume all of the deposits of Frontier Bank and purchase essentially all its assets. HeritageBank of the South is a unit of Heritage Financial Group Inc. based in Albany, Ga.

U.S. bank closures have been declining since they peaked in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.

Tags: bank failure, Federal Deposit insurance Corporation, LaGrange, Frontier Bank