CLINTON -- John Warner Bank, a fixture of downtown Clinton since 1867, was closed by state regulators Thursday in what apparently was the first area bank failure in this recession.

Acting as receiver for the bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation arranged for State Bank of Lincoln to assume bank deposits. Warner facilities will reopen today as branches of the Lincoln bank.

The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Banking, closed the bank, but deposits still are insured, an FDIC statement said.

Drive-up customers pulling up after the regulators moved in reacted positively to the news, FDIC spokeswoman Roberta Valdez said.

"We told them no one lost any money, and it's business as usual," Valdez said.

Customers should notice no change in the transfer because checks, ATM cards and online banking services will remain the same, said Steve Aughenbaugh, State Bank of Lincoln president, in a statement issued late Thursday afternoon.

Warner was among six Illinois banks, all controlled by one family, taken over by the FDIC on Thursday.

The founding Warner family of Clinton sold the bank in 2003.

The closings bring to 12 the number of Illinois banks closed this year.

As of April 30, Warner had total assets of $70 million and total deposits of approximately $64 million.

In addition to assuming all the Warner deposits, the Lincoln bank agreed to buy about $63 million of assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition.

The cost of the bank failure to the FDIC's insurance fund is estimated to be about $10 million.

An FDIC team and a state regulator went into Warner at closing time at 3 p.m. Thursday to initiate the transition, Valdez said.

"Obviously, it was a shock, a trauma" to employees, she said.

Forty people from the FDIC's Dallas office will work through the weekend with bank employees to complete the transition, including balancing all accounts and inventorying all loans, Valdez said.

"They've jumped right in - they're troupers," she said the bank's 26 full- and part-time employees.

The Clinton bank was going to be closed today for the holiday, but the Lincoln bank decided to open the Clinton bank facilities after all, said Valdez.