Costa Mesa’s Pacific Premier takes over failing bank

Canyon National Bank of Palm Springs, weakened by troubled commercial real estate loans, was closed late Friday by federal regulators who said its three branches would reopen Saturday as part of Pacific Premier Bank.

Pacific Premier, based in Costa Mesa, has five Orange County branches and an office in San Bernardino. It agreed to take over all of Canyon National’s $205 million in deposits and nearly all of the failed bank’s $211 million in assets, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a news release.

Depositors of Canyon will automatically become depositors of Pacific Premier, with their accounts insured by the FDIC for at least $250,000. The FDIC said Canyon customers should continue to use their existing branches until Pacific Premier informs them that they can use other Pacific Premier offices.

Founded in 1998, Canyon National had about 80% of its loans in real estate, mostly on the commercial side, with a niche specialty in providing banking services to Native Americans. It had been operating since October 2008 under orders to raise capital from regulators at the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Canyon National was among four banks seized across the country Friday. It was the 18th FDIC-insured institution to fail this year and the first in California. The FDIC said the failure would cost its deposit insurance fund $10 million.

— From Latimes.com