Alpharetta-based Integrity bank fails
By PAUL DONSKY, PÉRALTE C. PAUL
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and state regulators Friday shut down Integrity Bank, a troubled local lender hurt by the real estate crisis.
Birmingham-based Regions Financial will acquire Integrity’s $974 million in deposits, the FDIC said. Integrity customers will have access to their accounts and no interruption of service is expected, the FDIC said. Integrity’s five branch offices will reopen Tuesday as Regions offices and customers can continue to use those locations, the FDIC said.
However, the matter may not be over. The FBI, which investigates possible financial crimes, is looking into the situation, said agency spokesman Stephen Emmett. The “FBI is working with the FDIC” on the case, but it “is not prepared to discuss Integrity Bank at this time,” he said.
The Alpharetta-based bank, which opened its doors in 2000 with a Christian-centered philosophy, is the 10th U.S. bank to fail this year and the second Georgia institution to fail in the past 12 months.
As ranked by its total assets of $1.1 billion, Integrity becomes the third-largest bank failure in Georgia history.
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Integrity is the second financial services firm with a Christian-centered theme to soar at one point only to crash and burn. HomeBanc Mortgage Corp. last year sought bankruptcy protection after it ran out of money.
Integrity’s employees regularly prayed before meetings or in branch lobbies with customers, while the bank gave 10 percent of its net income to charities.
“We felt if we prayed and obeyed God’s word and did what He asked, that He would help us be successful,” the bank’s founder, Steve Skow, told the Journal-Constitution in 2005.
said.
Full story:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/business/stories/2008/08/29/integrity_bank_fails.html
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