(Source: The Arizona Daily Star)

By The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Aug. 15--Two Phoenix-area banks were shut down by federal regulators Friday.
The deposits of both banks, Phoenix-based Community Bank of Arizona and Union Bank of Gilbert, have been acquired by Oklahoma City-based MidFirst Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said late Friday.
Community Bank, which was ordered closed by the Arizona Department of Financial Institutions, has four locations in the Phoenix metro area. Union Bank was headquartered in Gilbert, south of Mesa, and had a location in nearby Queen Creek.
The failed banks' branches will open on Monday as MidFirst branches, and their customers will be able to write checks and use their debit cards over the weekend, said the FDIC, receiver for both banks.
The failures bring to three the number of Arizona-based banks that have failed in little more than a year. Scottsdale-based First National Bank of Arizona, which had two Tucson branches, was placed in federal receivership by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in July 2008. Mutual of Omaha Bank took over its deposits.
According to Community Bank of Arizona's Web site, the bank's parent company is Las Vegas, Nev.-based Community Bancorp, which opened in 1995.
Union Bank had assets of $124 million and deposits of about $112 million, while Community Bank of Arizona had assets of $158.5 million and deposits of $143.8 million.
MidFirst, a federally chartered thrift with a business presence in Arizona, agreed to buy about $125 million of Community's assets and $11 million of Union Bank's assets, the FDIC said.
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