Corus Bankshares Fate Rests with FDIC; May Be Sold to Investors

Corus Bankshares, the parent company of Corus Bank may be taken over by an investment consortium, with the financial support of the FDIC. Corus has long offered competitive CD rates and currently has rates that are at the top of the BestCashCow rate charts. For example, it currently has the third highest 18-month CD rate.

Bloomberg is reporting that:

"New York developer Related Cos., Thomas Barrack’s Colony Capital LLC and J.C. Flowers & Co. are also mulling bids for Corus. The 51-year-old bank’s fate rests with the FDIC because the lender and its financial adviser, Bank of America Corp., haven’t been able to find a buyer willing to complete a deal without government assistance."

For those that have deposit accounts with Corus, rest easy as long as your money is below FDIC insurance limits. The FDIC will make sure depositors do not lose money below the proper limits.

Corus lost $301 million in the first quarter of 2009 mainly on bad condo loans. The bank has a commercial loan portfolio of $5.4 billion of which $997 million was tied up in condo developments in Southern Florida.

Many expect that the bank will be seized as soon as August 6 by the FDIC.