Colonial Bancgroup

Colonial BancGroup Inc. (OTC Markets Group: CBCGQ) was a $26 billion bank holding company headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. Colonial BancGroup, Inc. (BancGroup) was a financial services company that, through its subsidiaries, provided diversified services, including retail and commercial banking, wealth management services, mortgage banking and insurance.

The company ran into problems after it was revealed that it had bought $1 billion in mortgages from Taylor, Bean & Whitaker that Taylor Bean did not own in one of the biggest fraud cases in history.[1]

The principal activity of the BancGroup was to supervise and coordinate the business of its subsidiaries, and to provide them with capital and services. The BancGroup derived substantially all of its income from dividends received from Colonial Bank, it's banking subsidiary. The BancGroup's subsidiary Colonial Brokerage, Inc. provided full service and discount brokerage services and investment advice. The BancGroup had interests in several residential and commercial real estate developments located in the southeastern United States, as well as two in the central Texas area. On January 31, 2006, Colonial Bank sold its interest in Goldleaf Technologies, Inc., which provides Internet and automated clearing house services to community banks.

Its former subsidiary, Colonial Bank, operated 346 branches in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Nevada and Texas.

At the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, Colonial Bancgroup had a Texas ratio of 53.4%, up from a figure of 25% in the first quarter of 2008.[2]

Colonial disclosed its legal problems on August 4, 2009, stating that federal agents had executed a search warrant at its mortgage warehouse lending offices in Orlando, Fla. and that it had been forced to sign a cease and desist order with the Federal Reserve and regulators at the end of last month in relation to its accounting practices and its recognition of losses.[3][4] On August 14 it was announced that BB&T would buy Colonial's branches and deposits in a deal with the FDIC.[5] This was the biggest bank failure of 2009.[6] On August 25 Colonial BancGroup filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The bankruptcy case's name is "In re Colonial BancGroup Inc, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Middle District of Alabama (Montgomery), No. 09-32303".[7]

References

  1. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110420/ap_on_bi_ge/us_tarp_case_trial
  2. ^ "One in eight lenders may fail, RBC says". Reuters. February 9, 2009. http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKTRE5187C220090209?symbol=CNB.N. 
  3. ^ Press, CNN (2009-08-15). "BB&T buys Colonial bank; 4 other banks fail - CNN Money". http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/14/news/companies/colonial_bancgroup/?postversion=2009081500. Retrieved 2009-08-15. 
  4. ^ Press, South Florida Business Journal (2009-06-10). "Colonial hit with cease and desist order". http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2009/06/08/daily24.html. Retrieved 2009-08-15. 
  5. ^ Fitzpatrick, Dan; Enrich, David; Crittenden, Michael R. (August 15, 2009). "Major Bank Fails in South". The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125026270774732295.html. 
  6. ^ Isidore, Chris; Pepitone, Julianne (August 14, 2009). "BB&T buys Colonial bank; 4 other banks fail". CNN. http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/14/news/companies/colonial_bancgroup/?postversion=2009081500. Retrieved April 30, 2010. 
  7. ^ Stempel, Jonathan (August 26, 2009). "Colonial BancGroup files Chapter 11". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKTRE57P0G420090826. Retrieved 27 August 2009.