Teaming Up on FDIC-Assisted Deals

Resolution Asset Management Co. L.P. was formed in 2010 to assist healthy banks acquire failed institutions from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. with loss-sharing agreements where the agency provides some measure of protection against losses. A subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald, RAM will provide capital to support the transaction, and has a dedicated team of professionals with real estate, asset management, banking and regulatory experience that can help banks bid for failed institutions and manage the acquired assets. Recently, Bank Director talked with Managing Director Rodney A. Montag about the outlook for FDIC-assisted deals, and how the RAM structure works.

What’s the outlook for FDIC assisted deals in 2011?

The outlook is pretty good, or bad, depending how you view it. We’ve had 322 failures since the current crisis began and we are projecting an additional 300 plus failures over the next few years. Looking forward, one of the big differences will be the average size of the bank failures, which we believe will get smaller.

Has the failure rate of banks peaked or do you think the situation will continue to worsen given the industry’s on-going asset quality problems?

I think that’s more of a regulatory policy question than anything else. There is a backlog of troubled banks to deal with and they’re only closing the worst of the worst, which is to say the banks that have diminished liquidity. They seem to be focused on banks with serious liquidity issues as opposed to those banks with operational or other asset problems.

What are the greatest challenges in doing an FDIC assisted deal?

The first is the availability of capital. Even if a healthy bank has sufficient capital, most banks are in a capital preservation mode and don’t want to spend it, including for an acquisition. The second challenge is working out the good and bad assets that are acquired from the failed institution. The third is the bidding process, which is competitive whether in or outside of your marketplace.

How does Resolution Asset Management work with a participating bank?

The bank will form an operating subsidiary of which RAM will be a non-voting minority member. The bank itself will acquire the failed bank’s deposits and liabilities, while the assets of the failed bank that are covered by loss share will be transferred to the operating subsidiary at a value agreed upon by RAM and the bank. A RAM affiliate will use its real estate, valuation and asset management expertise to manage these covered assets. RAM will provide to the operating subsidiary capital necessary to support the acquisition, which is usually a non-dilutive way for the bank to raise capital. The bank will hold a preferred equity ownership position in the op-sub and all of the voting portion of the common equity. In other words, RAM is a passive investor in the operating subsidiary with no interest in the bank or holding company.

What is your exit strategy once the bank’s loss-share agreement with the FDIC has been concluded?

Our equity interest is solely in the operating subsidiary; once all the covered assets have been resolved either through liquidation or modification, the subsidiary itself will be liquidated and RAM will no longer have any equity interest. And of course we never had any ownership interest in the bank parent or the bank holding company, which is a big difference between our structure and a private equity investment in the bank.

Are there steps that a bank should be taking even before they contact RAM?

It’s important to understand that a bank has to have our structure in place before they can bid on a failed bank, though we can also participate with a bank on a transaction they have already closed upon. We spend as much time underwriting the participating bank to confirm its health for our structure as we do reviewing the failed bank. The participating bank also has to submit our structure to its primary regulator for approval, which takes added time.