June 20, 2009

Fayetteville, Ga.-based Southern Community Bank was seized late Friday by state and federal banking regulators, in the 12th Georgia bank failure in the last 11 months.Essentially all of Southern Community’s operations -- including branches, deposits and assets -- will be acquired by Blairsville, Ga.-based United Community Banks Inc.

(NASDAQ: UCBI), the third-largest bank in the state, through a loss-sharing transaction, according to an announcement by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.Southern Community reported $377 million in total assets, $307 million in total deposits and five branches throughout the southern metro area.Under the terms of the deal, United Community will assume all of the bank’s deposits and Southern Community branches will re-open as United Community branches Monday.