Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Regulators clamp down on Giannoulias' Broadway Bank

Crain's Chicago Business reports:
Broadway Bank, the troubled Chicago lender owned by the family of Illinois Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias, has entered into a consent order with banking regulators requiring it to raise tens of millions in capital, stop paying dividends to the family without regulatory approval, and hire an outside party to evaluate the bank’s senior management.

The Jan. 26 consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Illinois Division of Banking comes less than a week before Mr. Giannoulias, Broadway’s chief lender until 2004, must face voters in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat previously held by President Barack Obama.

He’s faced criticism, principally from former city Inspector General David Hoffman, who’s running against him, for his past role at the bank and the $70 million in dividends the family took out of the bank in 2007 and 2008 as the real estate crisis was becoming apparent.
No word yet from Chicago Mob associates on this one.