Tucson customers of the failed First National Bank of Arizona weren't panicking Saturday.
The lobby of the bank's East Side branch was closed Saturday, as it usually is, but there was a Tucson Police Department cruiser parked out front with an officer and a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation official inside the lobby. The bank also has a branch at 10195 N. Oracle Road.
Robert Brown — an FDIC senior ombudsman specialist on hand at the bank's East Side branch to soothe customers possibly concerned about the bank failure — said he didn't have much to do.
When Renee Hall of Ventura, Calif., pulled up to the ATM at First National's 6298 E. Grant Road branch early Saturday afternoon, she was surprised to be asked about her concerns. She said she hadn't heard about the bank failure and was just there to deposit a check.
People are also reading…
"Is my check good?" she asked.
Brown, who had come out from the lobby exuding calm like a funeral home director, told Hall that Mutual of Omaha Bank bought the First National Bank of Arizona and that all accounts and deposits were safe.
Hall seemed satisfied, made a deposit at the ATM, and left.
Brown handed a reporter his BlackBerry after dialing up an FDIC public affairs officer in Phoenix for the official line.
The FDIC's David Barr said the federal agency picked Mutual of Omaha Bank on Wednesday as the winning bidder for the group of banks that included the two Tucson branches of Scottsdale-based First National Bank of Arizona.
He said it was an exceptional deal in that Mutual of Omaha Bank had chosen to take over all of the banking group's deposits, even those above the FDIC's $100,000 insured limit. The deal included taking over $200 million in loans.
He said the group included First National banks of Arizona and Nevada, and First Heritage Bank of California. Twenty-eight branches were involved: 15 in Arizona, 10 in Nevada and three in Southern California, Barr said.
Barr said debit cards, credits cards, checking and all funds were accessible and that it would be business as usual when the bank opens Monday. He said customers with loan payments to make should continue to address and pay them as they have been.
The quiet scenes at First National's branches Saturday in Arizona made quite a contrast with what happened when IndyMac Bank's assets were seized by federal regulators earlier this month. Then, hundreds of angry customers across Southern California waited for hours in lines to demand their money.
On Saturday, one First National branch in downtown Phoenix didn't even have a note outside to tell customers about the trouble. But there were no customers outside to tell.
"I feel like the Maytag repairman — there's just not much to do on the customer side of things," said Barr, the FDIC spokesman. "The few customers I've spoken with are very OK with the transactions."
Barr was at a Scottsdale branch to make sure things were running smoothly, and he said they were. "Every branch has been very quiet."
Of course, these customers aren't in the same situation as IndyMac's customers were. Every penny of their money is protected, Barr said.
