FDIC Sets 'Needs to Improve' CRA Ratings for 5 Institutions

[Dover]

Uh-oh...baaad report cards for these banks.


The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced low Community Reinvestment Act grades Thursday for three institutions with more than $3 billion of assets and two smaller banks.

The FDIC made public its "needs to improve" ratings for Utah-based Advanta Bank Corp. and CIT Bank, and for $3.9 billion-asset Republic Bank and Trust Co. in Louisville. The agency gave the same grade to $445 million-asset West View Savings Bank in Pittsburgh and $16 million-asset Coldwater Native Bank in Coldwater, Kan.

The FDIC noted that CIT, a $3.5 billion-asset commercial bank in Salt Lake City that converted from an industrial loan company in December, bought $3.1 billion of subprime loans with "predatory characteristics." The report, dated May 2008, said the loans' features "greatly increased the risk that the borrowers would default, or otherwise be in a worse financial position."..cont'd

http://www.americanbanker.com/printthis.html?id=20090305FNIZIHI1