FDIC contractor says more bank failures on the way

closed-sign.jpgMichael Sher has a first-hand view on the nation’s bank failures. He is managing director of RSM McGladrey, which has various contracts with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., including assisting the FDIC in shutting down banks, and assisting them with managing and selling the assets. He discusses where FDIC-assisted deals go from here, and what mistakes bankers make when buying failed banks.

What do you do for the FDIC?
To date, we and our strategic partner The Corvus Group, Inc. have assisted the FDIC in shutting down 59 failed financial institutions. Additionally, we are a contractor to the FDIC providing due diligence services to assist them in disposing of the assets that have been retained from the failed financial institutions. The first large deal was a $1.7 billion structured sale involving substantially non-performing acquisition and development loans. With a structured sale, the FDIC enters into a partnership with the buyer of the assets and typically, the FDIC retains a 60 percent ownership interest. The other transaction that we were involved with was a securitization backed by approximately $394 million of performing commercial and multi-family mortgages from 13 failed banks.

Do you think the FDIC will do more securitized asset sales in the future?
As we move ahead, I think that the FDIC will focus more on securitizations. The cost of due diligence for buyers on a structured sale is substantial and the size of the loans pools historically have exceeded a billion dollars in unpaid principal balance. It is apparent that the interest in such large transactions has waned.  The pricing received from the securitization sales is potentially higher than the other methods that the FDIC uses in disposing of assets from failed financial institutions. In addition, with a securitization, the FDIC does not retain an ownership interest that requires on-going monitoring. With structured sales, there is speculation that the size of the transactions will get smaller to encourage more participation.

Where do you think we’re headed in terms of bank closures?
I don’t believe it’s over. If you look at the number of banks on the watch list, it’s roughly 10 percent of the banks in the country. How can this crisis be over when we have not seen an overall increase in real estate values? That being said, in my opinion, the number of banks going into receivership will decrease as I think that the FDIC will encourage banks to merge prior to a failure. A benefit to this is that the directors and officers may avoid being investigated by the FDIC subsequent to failure, and may avoid possible legal ramifications.

What’s really the demand for banks in hard-hit areas such as Georgia and Florida and Illinois?
This is no different than the savings and loan crisis in the late ’80s and early ’90s. A lot of individuals and organizations made plenty of money buying distressed assets when others thought it was ludicrous to do so. I think that those who are not taking advantage of the distressed times now will be kicking themselves in the coming years because they missed the opportunity. Yes, you have to be cautious about what you buy, but those who get involved have the potential to make a lot of money.

How does the FDIC view the community banks who want to buy these failed banks, versus the big institutional investors?
In my opinion, the FDIC views this banking crisis as the banking industry’s problem and is looking to the healthy banks to resolve it. Most of the institutional investors don’t have the experience or the know-how that the FDIC is looking for. I think the FDIC is somewhat reluctant to get these money players involved. The key is to have the right team in place to manage and dispose of the assets.

What sort of mistakes do buyers make in buying failed banks?
I think one of the biggest mistakes made is buyers not having a full understanding of their rights and obligations under the loss share agreements that they have entered into with the FDIC. The acquiring banks have a short time-frame to truly understand what they have acquired and their reporting responsibilities under the loss share agreement. This results in the acquirers not fully understanding how to manage and/or dispose of the assets that they acquired.

Michael Sher