More Videos- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Topless Business Is Taking Off
- Gambling Drunk, Texting to Live And America's On Sale - Your Emails
- The Lloyd's Prayer, Leggo My Eggo, Plate Hate & Your Emails
- Help Wanted—Please Run $4 Billion University
- Madoff—The Holiday Drink
- Drugs, Booze and Vegas
- Happy World Toilet Day
- Coffee, Tea or My Ad?
MOST SHARED
- Tiger Woods Out of Hospital After Accident
- The Good Entrepreneur Winner
- Get Paid Six Figures to Wear a T-Shirt?
- Global Selloff From Dubai Woes Shows Signs of Winding Down
- Halftime Report: Dubai - First Ripple Of Larger Crisis?
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Spooks Investors But May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Next Week: Cash In Now Or Wait For A Santa Rally?
- U.S. Stocks Fall on Dubai Worries
- Black Friday at Best Buy
- Strategists on Dubai: Avoid 'Rash Moves' Now
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Dubai Stock Market Fear Has 'Legs': Dennis Gartman
- Obama's Emission Reduction Pledge Paints Future for Autos
- Is Super Bowl Halftime Act Too Old?
- Surprising Options Trades in TiVo Shares
- EA Sports Hopes to Pump Up Sales Through Pop-Up Locations
- Global Selloff From Dubai Shows Signs of Winding Down
- Dubai Stock Selloff May Bring Buying Opportunity
- Longer Lines, Fuller Carts This Black Friday
- Tiger Woods Out of Hospital After Accident
- Dubai Fallout Is a Correction, Not Another Crisis: El-Erian
- Dubai's Debt Woes Signal New Era for Creditors
- Get Paid Six Figures to Wear a T-Shirt?
- The World's Biggest Debtor Nations
- Five Tips for Buying a Foreclosed Home
RSS FEED
Funny Business
Text Size 
 |
BankAtlantic,[BBX
Loading...
()
] according to Bove, has a ratio of bad loans to all loans of 4.4%, and anything over 5% is potentially in danger. Bove also compared non-performing loans to the bank's loan loss reserves plus common equity, and he said the BankAtlantic had a 38.4 percent ratio. Anything over 40 percent was "in the danger zone."
The bank is now suing Bove for defamation. In a press release, BankAtlantic's Chairman, Alan B. Levan refers, in part, to yours truly, in saying, "In the wake of the highly publicized failure of IndyMac, breathless television reporters filled the airwaves with the repeated question on the minds of an anxious public: 'who is next?' Of course, if there is anyone who knows 'who is next,' it would be the folks at the FDIC with mountains of detailed financial information about every institution enjoying deposit insurance. They, however, keep what they know to themselves - for good reason."
Levan says reporters then turned to "a supposed expert" in Bove, who "failed to examine the health of the banks and thrifts in his report. Instead, he only examined holding company data, which, in at least our case, is meaningless information. This is simply shocking." The bank says it is well capitalized and that Bove got his ratios wrong. The true ratio of non-performing loans to all loans is 1.25 percent, and bad loans compared to reserves and equity is 12.5 percent.
"Not even close," says the bank, to what Bove called dangerous. Chairman Levan claims Bove based his figures on those from the holding company, which do not represent the numbers for the subsidiary bank. "BankAtlantic can clear its name from this irresponsible defamation - and that is what it is - is in the courthouse."
Interestingly, a week ago the bank sent out a press release saying the numbers were wrong, and Bove sent out a follow-up report saying the Bank disagreed with him. "The holding company has purchased $100,000,000 in non-performing assets from the underlying bank," Bove wrote. "Therefore, the ratio of the underlying bank is 12.5% at the end of the 1st quarter. This is not expected to change in the 2nd quarter. Investors can therefore, either choose the numbers for the holding company as published, or use the number provided for the underlying bank." I guess that wasn't enough to stave off a lawsuit.
By the way, here is the original Bove report in its entirety.
But BankAtlantic suggests, however, that one checks public records of the bank itself. I did, on the FDIC website, which says the banks ratio of non-performing loans to all loans is 1.67 percent.
You can check this for any bank you want, though the FDIC doesn't make it easy. Go to the web site's "Institution Directory." Click on "Find Institutions." Put in a bank's name and then hit "Find." Once the bank comes up, click on its "Cert" number. You'll get a page with the bank's name on it. Under "ID Report Selections," click on the drop-down menu, and then click on "All Summary Information." Then click on "Generate Report." Look at line item 93 on the report that is then generated. That will give you the "non-performing loans to all loans" ratio. Again, Bove said anything over 5 percent is in the danger zone.
Meantime, Yvette Kantrow from The Deal wrote about all this.
Questions? Comments? Funny Stories? Email
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes