Latest: Big Dreams Come Back to Bite New York Community Bank
During last spring’s banking crisis, when a competing lender went under, New York Community Bank pounced, acquiring a big chunk of its business. Now, it is paying dearly for that decision.The pain stems largely from a weakening commercial real estate market that impelled NYCB — which operates more than 400 branches under brands including Flagstar Bank — to admit to mounting losses. In a piece of symmetry with last year’s crisis, the bank said its newfound size after the acquisition of Signature Bank, had accelerated its troubles by forcing it to keep more money on hand, crimping its profitability and prompting it to consider selling distressed assets sooner than it might have preferred.Over the past week, fears that such pressure could be too much for the bank to bear broke into the open, ...