The FDIC brought suit last week against the directors and officers of a bank in FDIC receivership, in what appears to be the implementation of a strategy it announced earlier this year to recover up to $2.5 billion in damages caused by bad loans.

Last week, in the Northern District of Georgia, the FDIC filed an action against directors of the defunct Integrity Bank–one of whom is a Georgia state senator–seeking recovery of $70 million in bad loans made by the bank.  The directors are accused of gross negligence and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the loans, which were commercial and residential acquisition, development and construction loans, because of their pursuit of an “unsustainable growth strategy” despite being warned by both state and federal regulators of excessive risk.  The complaint can be found here.

The FDIC has confirmed on its website that it has authorized suits against 119 individuals for D&O liability with damage claims of approximately $2.5 billion.  As of this posting, the FDIC has filed four such lawsuits, including two in California and one in Illinois.  The FDIC notes that from 1986 through 2009, it collected $6.2 billion from professional liability claims (while spending $1.5 billion to fund these claims and investigations).  This new wave of clawback efforts will likely generate significant D&O coverage claims in coming months and years.