news-record.com

ASHEBORO — CommunityOne Bank and Bank of Granite have announced plans to merge.

The merger of these 100-year-old institutions will create a North Carolina community banking organization with approximately $2.9 billion in assets, $2.4 billion in deposits and 63 full-service banking offices. The new bank will take the CommunityOne name.

The combined parent company will be called FNB United Corp. and will be operated by new management. Brian Simpson will be chief executive officer, and Bob Reid will be president. FNB United will be based in Asheboro.

The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of this year.

CommunityOne Bank has lost about $280 million in the past three years as it struggled with a series of bad loans, foreclosed properties and other troubles caused by the recession. The bank has been under special orders from federal regulators to prevent it from collapsing.

CommunityOne’s balance sheet is loaded with nearly $400 million in bad assets such as foreclosed houses, repossessed commercial properties and unpaid loans. That’s nearly four times the $111 million in capital and money for loan losses that the bank has on hand.

Community One has branches in Greensboro and Jamestown as well as in Alamance and Randolph counties. Bank of Granite has one branch in Winston-Salem, with most of the rest near Charlotte and in the western part of the state.