Saving America's banking system
As President Barack Obama moves to prevent banks from making risky trades, regulators prepare to seize dozens more financial institutions. Now, bad loans have crept from homes to commercial real estate, where large mortgages take a heavy toll.
It's a Tuesday afternoon, and M&M Associates is busily preparing for yet another big transaction.
At M&M's offices in Irvine, Calif., staff scramble to line up lawyers, accountants, leasing agents, human resources specialists and loan officers – all the expertise needed to run the bank it's taking over.
By Thursday, M&M's team of more than 60 people is ready to move – flights are booked, bags packed, hotel reservations made.
They're bound for Otsego, Minn., a sleepy bedroom community of Minneapolis and home to the Riverview Community Bank.
Most of Riverview's 50 employees have no inkling of the drama that is about to unfold. Minutes after the large wooden clock behind the tellers' stalls strikes 5 p.m. on Friday, the bank will cease to be.
That's because M&M Associates isn't pursuing a business opportunity with its takeover. M&M is a cover name for the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. And Riverview, weighed down by a swelling portfolio of bad real estate loans, is about to be shut down by the regulator.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/saving-americas-banking-system/article1441320/Long article.
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