Balance of Power

The closure of First NBC Bank Holding Co. in 2017, barely a decade after its founding, remains one of the most expensive bank failures of the post-crisis years. The fast-growing New Orleans-based bank had many of the hallmarks that regulators now associate with bank failures: volatile, high-rate funding; complicated operations; and a board that didn’t push back against a domineering chief executive. In some ways, that final observation came as a surprise. First NBC’s directors and officers had “extensive banking experience” within the New Orleans market, including a board that “exhibited a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences,” according to…