Affinity Bank in Ventura is seized
Regulators shut down Affinity Bank of Ventura late Friday, saying its capital cushion against losses had been severely depleted by problems with construction loans and commercial mortgages.
Affinity’s 10 branches -- four in Ventura County, two in Los Angeles County, one in Orange County and three in Northern California -- are to reopen as branches of San Diego-based Pacific Western Bank.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Pacific Western had agreed to assume all of the deposits held by Affinity. The deposits totaled $922 million as of July 10 and will continue to be insured by the FDIC, the agency said.
Affinity customers can gain access to their money over the weekend by writing checks, which are to be processed as usual, or by using ATM or debit cards, the FDIC said.
Pacific Western also agreed to buy nearly all of Affinity’s $1 billion in assets in a deal under which the FDIC will share in losses on the portfolio. The agency estimated that the failure would cost the federal deposit insurance fund $254 million.
Affinity was the 84th FDIC-insured institution to fail this year, and the ninth in California.
Two other banks also failed Friday: Mainstreet Bank of Forest Lake, Minn., and Bradford Bank of Baltimore.
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