Georgian Bank: Yet Another Failed Bank!

On Bloomberg News: Banks Have Us Flying Blind on Depth of Losses: Jonathan Weil

The first few passages were rather 'shocking'...

• Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- There was a stunning omission from the government’s latest list of “problem” banks, which ran to 416 lenders, a 15-year high, as of June 30. One outfit not on the list was Georgian Bank, the second-largest Atlanta-based bank, which supposedly had plenty of capital.
  
  It failed last week.
  
  Georgian’s clean-up will be unusually costly. The book value of Georgian’s assets was $2 billion as of July 24, about the same as the bank’s deposit liabilities, according to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. press release. The FDIC estimates the collapse will cost its insurance fund $892 million, or 45 percent of the bank’s assets. That percentage was almost double the average for this year’s 95 U.S. bank failures, and it was the highest among the 10 largest ones.

Makes you wonder.

The bank was supposedly to have plenty of capital.

It was not ON THE PROBLEM BANK list!

But yet... if failed!!!

• How many other seemingly healthy multibillion-dollar community banks are out there waiting to implode? That’s impossible to know, which is what’s so unsettling about Georgian’s sudden downfall. Just when the conventional wisdom suggests the banking crisis might be under control, along comes a reality check that tells us we’re still flying blind.
  
  The cost of Georgian’s failure confirms that the bank’s asset values were too optimistic. It also helps explain why the FDIC, led by Chairman Sheila Bair, is resorting to extraordinary measures to replenish its battered insurance fund.
  
  Georgian, which had five branches catering to local businesses and wealthy individuals, was chartered in 2001. By 2003, the closely held bank had raised $50 million from an investor group led by a longtime local banker, Gordon Teel, who remained chief executive officer until last July. It grew at a breathtaking pace, fueled by the real-estate bubble.
  
  Triple Play
  
  From 2004 to 2007, total assets almost tripled to $2 billion from $737 million. Annual net income rose seven-fold to $18.3 million. The bank touted its philanthropy, including a $1 million pledge to a local children’s hospital, and boasted of a growing art collection showcasing Georgia painters.
  
  As recently as its March 31 report to regulators, Georgian said it met the FDIC’s requirements to be deemed “well capitalized.” By June 30, that had dropped to “adequately capitalized,” after a $45 million second-quarter net loss.
  
  Georgian also reported a 12-fold jump in nonperforming loans to $306.4 million from $24.7 million three months earlier, mostly construction loans. Georgian’s numbers made it seem as if the surge arose from nowhere. On its March 31 report, the bank said just $79.1 million of its loans were 30 days or more past due. That included the loans it had classified as nonperforming.
  
  Survival Mode
  
  Georgian’s new CEO, John Poelker, downplayed any concerns. “Whether there is enough capital for the bank to be a survivor isn’t an issue,” he told Bloomberg News for an Aug. 5 article.
  
  What wasn’t made public until Sept. 25, the day it closed, was that Georgian Bank had agreed to a cease-and-desist order with the FDIC on Aug. 31 after flunking an agency examination. The 19-page order described various “unsafe or unsound banking practices and violations of law and/or regulations,” including failing to record loan losses in a timely manner. Georgian neither admitted nor denied the allegations. ( My comments: It flunked the FDIC test on Aug 31st... and yet... it was not disclosed until Sept 25!!! Where is the transparency??? )
  
  The FDIC updates the public about the number of banks on its problem list once a quarter. An FDIC spokesman, David Barr, said Georgian was added to the FDIC’s internal list in July. He said the agency adds banks to the list based on exam ratings, not the data in their financial reports.
  
  As for the 416 banks on the list as of June 30, up from 305 a quarter earlier, the FDIC said their combined assets were $299.8 billion. (The FDIC didn’t name the banks, per its usual practice.) If Georgian’s experience is any guide, the real-world value of those assets probably is much less.
  
  Rising Losses
  
  That might help explain why the FDIC keeps increasing its estimates for the losses it’s anticipating from future bank failures. In May, the agency said it was expecting $70 billion of losses through 2013. This week, it bumped that to $100 billion. The agency also said its insurance fund would finish the third quarter with a deficit, meaning liabilities exceed assets.
  
  The FDIC, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, will get whatever money it needs to protect depositors. For now, it plans to raise $45 billion by collecting advance payments from the banking industry. Those payments will cover the next three years of premiums that the banks owe.
  
  In effect, the FDIC is taking out a massive, no-interest loan to cover its bills. Borrowing from the future won’t improve its insurance fund’s capital, however, only its liquidity.
  
  The big question is what the FDIC will do next time, should its loss estimates keep rising -- and there’s no reason to believe they won’t. By statute, the insurance fund is supposed to be funded solely by the banking industry. The FDIC could keep borrowing from the banks, directly or through more advances.
  
  The agency could tap its $500 billion credit line with the U.S. Treasury. It still would have to pay back the money with fees from the industry, assuming the banks can’t persuade their minions in Congress to change the law. As it stands, the only way to boost the fund’s capital immediately is by charging the banks a lot more money for their insurance premiums.
  
  Given the odds that other surprises like Georgian Bank are lurking, the FDIC will have to bite this bullet eventually.
  

Yet another indicator that the so-called economic revovery is not sustainable?