Community Bank of Nevada and two Arizona-based banks were seized by U.S. regulators Friday evening, as the number of failed U.S. institutions surpassed 77 for 2009. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said that Community Bank of Nevada, Union Bank NA and Community Bank of Arizona were all closed by regulators Friday evening.

The failures put at five the number of banks that regulators seized on Friday, including the earlier failure of Colonial Bancgroup Inc.'s (CNB) Colonial Bank.

The most significant of the three late failures is the seizure of Las Vegas-based Community Bank of Nevada, which had total assets of $1.52 billion and total deposits of $1.38 billion at the end of June. The FDIC was unable to immediately find a purchaser for the bank and instead created a new institution to be known as the Deposit Insurance National Bank of Las Vegas. The agency said the bridge firm will be run by Nevada State bank and will be open for 30 days.

The FDIC, in a rare move, encouraged depositors to find a new bank. "All insured depositors of Community Bank of Nevada are encouraged to transfer their insured funds to other banks," the agency said in a statement.

The failure of the bank is expected to cost the federal deposit insurance fund an estimated $781.5 million.

Also failing Friday evening were Community Bank of Arizona and Union Bank NA, of Phoenix and Gilbert, Ariz., respectively. The FDIC said that in both chases that it had reached an agreement with MidFirst Bank of Oklahoma City to assume the deposits of the banks, except for $88 million in brokered deposits from Union Bank.

Community Bank of Arizona had total assets of $158.5 million and deposits of $143.8 million as of June 30, while Union Bank had assets of $124 million and deposits of roughly $112 million. The FDIC said MidFirst had agreed to acquire approximately $125.5 million of assets from Community Bank of Arizona, and $11 million from Union Bank. The agency said it will hold onto the remaining assets to sell at a later date.

As part of the asset purchases, the FDIC and MidFirst entered into a loss-share transaction on approximately $55.1 million of Community Bank of Arizona's assets. The failure of the two Arizona banks are estimated to cost the federal deposit insurance fund $86.5 million.

Friday's five failures put at 102 the number of U.S. institutions that have been seized by regulators since the beginning of 2008 as the credit and broader economic problems continue to reverberate through the financial system.

The failures put further pressure on the FDIC's deposit insurance fund, which stood at just $13 billion as of the end of March. The agency expects to offset some of the losses by collecting a one-time fee of $5.6 billion from the banking industry in September, and also from a $25 billion reserve fund announced earlier this year to help account for expected failures.

The seizures Friday evening came hours after regulators moved to seize Colonial Bancgroup Inc.'s Colonial Bank in the sixth-largest bank failure in U.S. history. Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial, with assets of $25 billion and 346 branches in five states, was shut down by regulators and had its branches, deposits and most of its assets sold off to rival BB&T Corp. (BBT).

Also on Friday, regulators took over tiny Pittsburgh-based thrift Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association and sold most of it to PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC).

-By Michael R. Crittenden, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-821-2159; michael.crittenden@dowjones.com