First National Bank of Nevada, based in Reno with US$3.4 billion in assets, and Newport Beach, California-based First Heritage Bank, which had US$254 million in assets, were undercapitalized, the Washington-based Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Friday in a statement. Mutual of Omaha Bank will take over their accounts, said the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which was named the receiver.

“We would first like to reassure all customers of First National Bank of Nevada and First Heritage Bank that all their deposits are safe and accessible,” Mutual of Omaha Bank Chief Executive Officer Jeff Schmid said in a statement. “We will be open for business on Monday morning.”

The banks, owned by First National Bank Holding Co. of Scottsdale, Arizona, are the sixth and seventh to fail this year as the world’s largest banks and securities firms have announced more than US$468 billion in writedowns and credit losses since the start of 2007. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has said bank failures will increase as foreclosures rise and home sales slump.

Regulators closed IndyMac Bancorp Inc., a Pasadena, California-based mortgage lender with more than US$19 billion in deposits, on July 11, in the third-largest federal seizure of a financial company. Bair said the U.S. may offer to share losses to entice buyers to pay a higher price for IndyMac’s assets.

Mutual of Omaha Bank, based in Omaha, Nebraska, will gain some assets in addition to all deposits, and their 28 offices in Arizona, California and Nevada will open July 28 as branches of the Omaha bank, the FDIC said.

First Heritage, a national bank chartered in 2005, had three branches and mainly served corporations. First National Bank of Nevada, chartered in 1987, also operated as First National Bank of Arizona with 25 branches, the regulators said.

Lenders on the FDIC’s “problem list” grew to 90 in the first quarter from 76 in the fourth quarter of 2007, the FDIC said in May. The FDIC insures deposits at 8,494 institutions with US$13.4 trillion in assets. The OCC is a Washington-based agency of the Treasury Department that regulates national banks.

U.S. bank regulators this year closed Staples, Minnesota-based First Integrity Bank and ANB Financial in Bentonville, Arkansas, in May; Hume Bank in Hume, Missouri, in March; and Douglass National Bank in Kansas City, Missouri, in January. The four lenders had US$2.2 billion in assets and losses estimated at US$225 million.

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