US Century Bank, Miami-Dade County's insider piggy bank: FDIC on conflicts of interest ... by gimleteye

The premise of the HBO hit series, "True Blood", is that vampires live in uneasy harmony with humans, who have a taste for each others' blood. One of the conceits that also harmonizes with our conflicted natures is the capacity of vampires to "glamor" humans to make them believe or forget whatever they want. The thrall could be compared with the public response to the crisis triggered by financial institutions who made speculation a high virtue and wrecked the economy; for which there is still no accountability. The New York Times yesterday reported how directors of failed corporations like Enron and Lehman Brothers have gone on to rewarding positions in other public corporations, "Ex-Directors of Failed Firms Have Little To Fear". Today the federal banking regulator, FDIC, is dealing with hundreds of banks still propped up with infusions of taxpayer money. These could be called "the walking dead" or "zombie banks". The biggest recipient of TARP funds in Florida is US Century Bank: whose founders and board of directors are well known in Miami-Dade county political circles. Last week's Consent Order with US Century Bank in Miami shows how federal regulators are holding the line with US Century, or at least trying to, with its ratio of insider loans to net worth nearly 100 times its banking peer group. The federal FDIC focused its Consent Order on accountability, insider conflicts, management capability, and ethics. Here is one example: