Banking’s worst-case scenario

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on August 18, 2009 at 7:51 am

You may not buy all of the points made here by financial planner John Lounsbury, but there is plenty to agree with, including this thought:

We need one hell of a recovery here to prevent disaster. Muddle through will not do it. A return to 3% GDP growth may not do it. We need a couple of years at 4% (or higher) GDP growth to have any chance that some of these banks can earn their way out of the quagmire.

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Tags: bank failures, banking, credit, lending, loan losses, recession  

Bair pushes for ‘comprehensive resolution regime’

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on July 23, 2009 at 7:44 am

Bloomberg News says FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair will today tell lawmakers they should collect cash from the country’s large banks for a fund that would manage the bailouts of failed financial companies. Oh yeah, and throw the bums out.

“In contrast to the current situation, this new regime would not focus on propping up the current firm and its management,” Bair said. “Without a new comprehensive resolution regime, we will be forced to repeat the costly, ad hoc responses of the last year.”

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Tags: bailout, bank failures, banking, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., financial institutions, financial regulation, government intervention, Sheila Bair  

Synovus unit takes over failed Georgia bank

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on April 24, 2009 at 6:44 pm

Bank of North Georgia, an Atlanta-area sister of The Bank of Nashville, will assume more than $50 million in deposits and $30 million in assets formerly belonging to American Southern Bank. It’s the fifth bank failure in Georgia this year.

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Tags: American Southern Bank, bank failures, Bank of North Georgia, banking, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., financial regulation, Georgia, government regulation, Synovus Financial Corp., The Bank of Nashville  

Regions taking over failed Atlanta-area bank

By Geert De Lombaerde Posted on February 6, 2009 at 4:24 pm

The FDIC turns to Nashville’s biggest bank to acquire a four-branch bank south of Atlanta that regulators closed this afternoon. It’s the second time Regions has been the white knight in Georgia. Last summer, it took over Integrity Bank.

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Tags: bank failures, banking, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Georgia, Regions Bank, Regions Financial Corp.