Frontier Bank, based in Everett, has been closed due to bad loans, becoming the sixth Washington bank to close in 2010.

The Washington Department of Financial Institutions closed the bank’s 51 branches on April 30, including one at 901 W. Washington St., Sequim; 1212 E. First St., Port Angeles; and 2200 W. Sims Way, Port Townsend.

All the branches reopened Monday, May 3, as Union Bank, which purchased Frontier’s $3.13 billion deposits and $3.50 billion in total assets from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

They entered into a loss-share transaction on $3.04 billion of Frontier’s assets. The FDIC estimates that the bank’s failure cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund is $1.37 billion.

Union Bank, National Association of San Francisco, has $85 billion in assets and 346 banks in California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and two international offices.

It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.

Business as usual
Depositors of Frontier Bank automatically become depositors of Union Bank, with up to $250,000 insured by the FDIC.

The FDIC asks customers to continue using their Frontier Bank branch until they receive notice from Union Bank that the change allows other Union Bank branches to process their accounts as well.

All accounts are accessible via ATMs, debit cards or checks, and loan customers should continue payments.

Customers who have questions about the transaction can call the FDIC at 800-823-4939.

Prior to the purchase, Union Bank had branches in Seattle, Tacoma and Bellevue. More on Union Bank can be found online at www.unionbank.com.

Sequim’s Union Bank/Frontier Bank is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and can be reached at 681-2590.