Federal officials shut down real estate lender Colonial BancGroup Inc. in the biggest US bank failure this year.

The failed bank’s 346 branches in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, and Texas will reopen at the normal times starting on Saturday as offices of Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which was appointed receiver of the Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial and its about $25 billion in assets.

The FDIC has approved the sale of Colonial’s $20 billion in deposits and about $22 billion of its assets to BB&T Corp.

However, Colonial was not the only bank shuttered. Regulators also closed four other banks: Community Bank of Arizona, based in Phoenix; Union Bank, based in Gilbert, Ariz.; Community Bank of Nevada, based in Las Vegas; and Dwelling House Savings and Loan Association, located in Pittsburgh.

The number of federally insured banks that have failed in 2009 is now pegged at 77.

(via the Associated Press)