Regulators shut down First Bank of Beverly Hills

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Federal regulators closed First Bank of Beverly Hills late today and said they would send checks to insured depositors at the one-branch bank -- which, despite its name, is in Calabasas.

After a planned takeover by an Illinois financial firm fell apart last week, no buyer emerged for the bank, which is owned by Beverly Hills Bancorp. It had few local depositors, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which will take over the institution’s loans and other assets.

First Bank of Beverly Hills, a commercial lender beaten up by California’s real estate downturn, had $1.5 billion in assets at the end of last year and total deposits of $1 billion -- much of which was brought in via financial brokers. The FDIC estimated that just $179,000 of the deposits were uninsured.

The agency estimated that the bank’s collapse would cost the insurance fund $349 million. First Bank is the 28th bank failure of the year and the fourth in California.

Read the FDIC’s news release on the takeover here for more about what depositors and loan customers should expect.

-- E. Scott Reckard