City National takes over failed Nevada bank

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City National Bank has acquired its third failed bank in five months, this time extending its Nevada franchise with a takeover of Sun West Bank, a Las Vegas-based institution with seven offices.

Sun West, closed Friday night by Nevada state banking regulators, will reopen after the Memorial Day holiday weekend as part of City National, the largest Los Angeles-based bank, which has about $20 billion in assets.

Sun West had about $352 million in assets at the end of April and $311 million in deposits, virtually all of which will be taken over by City National. About $252 million of the assets are loans on which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will share losses, City National said.

City National has been doing business in Nevada since 2007. Before Friday’s deal it had eight branches in the state, including two full-service regional centers in Las Vegas and Reno.

‘Sun West Bank expands City National’s commitment to Nevada and reflects our confidence in the state’s long-term economic prospects,’ Russell Goldsmith, chief executive of City National, said in a news release.

‘Sun West and City National fit well together, especially given that all seven of Sun West’s banking offices are located in the northern and southern Nevada communities that City National now serves. When the integration is complete, clients of both banks will enjoy the added convenience and capabilities of an expanded branch network as well as the outstanding service and financial solutions of America’s 27th-largest bank.’

The previous two failed banks acquired by City National were San Diego’s Imperial Capital Bank and 1st Pacific Bank.

In its news release, the FDIC estimated that Sun West’s failure would cost the deposit insurance fund $96.7 million. The bank was the nation’s 78th FDIC-insured institution to fail this year

-- E. Scott Reckard