Carlyle, which was rebuffed by regulators for its bid for Silverton before its failure this May, is mulling to take government assistance this time. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), which was the receiver when Silverton Bank failed in May 1, is keen to sell the entire Silverton Bank or portions of its operations, to two anonymous private-equity buyers.
As a largest correspondent bank, Silverton Bank offered deposit and credit services to other banks, rather than individual customers. It had more than $4.1 billion in total assets and 1,400 bank customers countrywide. However, because of surging credit problems mainly in real estate loans, it became the biggest bank failure in the history of Georgia.
Over the past one year, private-equity players looked at number of failed banks across the US, but very few deals took shape. Carlyle with three other private-equity firms recently acquired the banking operations of Florida’s BankUnited Financial Corp from federal regulators, with Carlyle contributing more than $200 million to that deal. If the Silverton deal is consummated, it would be the third largest deal struck within the past month.
