JUST AS GREG PALAST PREDICTED IN YESTERDAY'S POST!
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-too-small-to-succeed-20130918,0,1014175.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fbusiness+%28L.A.+Times+-+Business%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo
...what about the little banks caught in the ensuing economic and regulatory backwash? Banks that wrote no dicey home loans, sold no toxic securities, never considered trading leveraged derivatives — the ones whose shareholders and customers live within an easy drive of the head office.
While the too-big banks have gotten even bigger, smaller community bankers are finding it increasingly tough to survive, in part because they must commit more of their limited resources to complying with new regulations stemming from the global near-meltdown. That has increased pressures on the owners and directors of small banks to sell out to their larger brethren, they say.
Indeed, many community banks are now too small to succeed.
"Regulatory burden is absolutely a factor for many smaller banks that are looking to exit," said Steven Gardner, president of Pacific Premier Bank in Irvine, which has acquired two failed banks and two open banks in the last two years.
"And it's absolutely going to continue," said Gardner, whose bank, with 13 offices and $1.6 billion in assets, is scouting more acquisitions....
= new reply since forum marked as read