When directors and their banks get too close

WICHITA — The Charlotte Observer has a fascinating story today about what happens when members of a bank’s board of directors get too close to a bank whose interest they are supposed to be watching out for.

Of $5 million in loans this director took out from the bank, $3.2 million of the loans turned sour.

And the bank’s failure cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s deposit insurance fund $131 million.

I’m not implying that this director’s action caused the bank to fail. But there clearly was little oversight by the board.

One Comment

  1. bth
    Posted August 31, 2009 at 6:57 pm | Permalink

    Seeing that one loan and the fact that 2/3 of it went sour makes me wonder about the rest of the loans. How many went to ‘buddies’ of the Directors and execs of the bank? Sounds like time for a little forensic accounting to ferret out some answers.