FBOP Corporation - Bank Failure

Bank Failure

FBOP's subsidiaries lost an estimated $800 million when the United States Treasury placed government-sponsored mortgage investors Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) into conservatorship and wiped out preferred stockholders. As a result, FBOP posted an operating loss of $708 million for 2008. By the end of June, FBOP's resources had dwindled so low that the firm ranked below 98% of similar bank holding companies in terms of tier 1 leverage ratio, a measure of bank capital.

In August 2009, FBOP signed a so-called written agreement with the Federal Reserve that gave it a schedule to raise capital, improve risk management and reduce its concentration of commercial real estate loans. The bank was to submit a capital plan within 30 days.

FBOP failed to raise enough capital to satisfy the terms of the agreement. On October 30, 2009, FBOP's subsidiaries were closed by their chartering agencies and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was appointed as their receiver. The FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with Minnesota-based U.S. Bancorp to assume the assets and deposit liabilities of the closed banks. The FDIC estimates its losses on the combined transaction at $2.5 billion.