To: Dale Baker who wrote (464 ) 7/28/1998 5:46:00 PM From: Jeffrey L. Henken Respond to of 1020
July 28 - The failed BestBank of Boulder reopened at 9 a.m. Monday with new owners, a new name and a clean slate for customers with accounts fully insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.denverpost.com "I feel very positive about our expansion up north," said Robert L. Hays, president of Pueblo Bank & Trust. Pueblo, which also has branches in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Canon City and Salida, had been looking to expand to Denver, Boulder or another part of northern Colorado, Hays said. "This opportunity came up and expedited our move to Boulder by a couple of years." Pueblo Bank & Trust purchased $225.3 million in insured customer deposits and 15 automated teller machines of the failed BestBank from the FDIC Saturday for $1.13 million. It also agreed to purchased an additional $47.2 million in bank assets at face value. BestBank was shut by the state banking division Thursday for not having enough money to do business. The bank, which reported about $300 million in assets, had $134 million in undercapitalized losses and $23.1 million in capital reserves. Hays said there was no underlying concern in purchasing BestBank. "There is always a lot of unknown. But we didn't have any trepidation at all about taking over a bank that was closed by the FDIC." BestBank's closure was the first bank closing in Colorado since July 2, 1993, when Jefferson Bank and Trust in Lakewood was shut because of lending woes and poor asset quality. The FDIC is continuing its investigation into BestBank, but Pueblo Bank & Trust isn't open to any liability from that investigation, officials said. "If you voluntarily merge with a bank, you take over its headaches," said David Barr, an FDIC spokesman. "Here, those headaches are left behind with the FDIC. ... It's a good easy way to get a presence in a state."