Former Back of America (NYSE: BAC) CEO Hugh McColl and former CFO Mark Oken, is one of a group of investors looking to raise as much as $600 million to purchase banking assets in Florida.
Falfurrias Capital Partners, a Charlotte-based investment firm cofounded by Oken and McColl, have agreed to invest an undisclosed amount in North American Financial Holdings. North American is led by Gene Taylor, Bank of America’s former head of investment and corporate Banking, and Chris Marshall, who was the former CFO of Fifth Third Bancorp.
Buyout firms are investing substantial amounts in the banking industry to pick-up banking assets as a discount as the financial industry recovers from more than $1.7 trillion in credit-related losses sparked by the near-collapse of the housing market and a global recession.
“There’s a suspicion among regulators that private-equity groups are in it for a quick buck or you will make regulators look bad if you buy something cheap and then turn around and flip it,” Douglas said. “Regulators seem to believe that existing institutions can absorb enough of the failed banks to get by.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has overseen 140 bank failures during 2009, the largest number of bank failures in a single year since 1992 at the height of the savings and loan crisis. As of September 30th, the FDIC had 552 banks with $435.9 billion in assets on its problems list.
