Burdened by souring construction and land development loans, First Regional Bank in Culver City was seized by federal regulators late Friday, marking the first bank failure of 2010 in Los Angeles County.

First Regional, which recorded a loss of $111 million in the third quarter 2009, was operating under a cease-and-desist order from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. that required the business bank to raise new capital. The bank, which had assets of $2.18 billion and deposits of $1.87 billion, was stretched thin with more than $300 million of loans in nonaccrual status.

First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co., a Raleigh, N.C., institution with $15.8 billion in assets, reached a deal with the FDIC to acquire all of First Regional’s deposits and $2.17 billion in assets, which include eight branches that will reopen Monday under new ownership.

Customers will have full access to their accounts over the weekend, the FDIC said.

Regulators said the seizure, carried out by the California Department of Financial Institutions, will cost the FDIC’s deposit-insurance fund an estimated $825 million.

With a focus on serving the L.A. business community, First Regional was founded in 1979 as Great American Bank by Jack Sweeney. The bank, which changed its name in 1987, eventually became one of the 10 largest in Los Angeles, with assets approaching $2.5 billion.

But recently the institution was challenged by rising levels of problem assets. Regulators last February issued a cease-and-desist order accusing the bank of “unsafe and unsound banking practices,” and directing the institution to reduce problem loans, raise capital levels and overhaul management.

Early Friday, the Nasdaq halted trading of First Regional’s shares, which had fallen from $34 to 65 cents over the last three years.

First Regional is the 14th FDIC-insured bank to fail in 2010 and the first in Los Angeles since First Federal Bank of California was seized Dec. 18.