Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Deaf seniors lose money in Nevada bank collapse

A story by ProPublica about the closure of Silver State Bank in Nevada by regulators as part of the ongoing credit crisis. The story reports that the FDIC closed the bank in September:

The FDIC -- which oversaw the bank at the federal level -- says Silver State's collapse will cost the insurance fund up to $550 million. The bank's failure also vaporized $20 million in uninsured deposits, including $170,000 belonging to the Las Vegas chapter of the Deaf Seniors of America.

Silver State isn't another casualty of the subprime flameout. The bank made its biggest bets not on home mortgages, but on loans to developers across Nevada and Arizona. Its demise highlights an aspect of the financial crisis that's been overshadowed by the crash of Wall Street and its megabanks: How small banks are suffering from a wave of defaults on construction and development loans that could cause dozens more to succumb in the year ahead.